Happy Accidents
by Sincerely V
Summary: Emily and Paige meet in a different way where circumstances aren't always what they seem. It also involves Hanna and Caleb all of it with a fun twist. Future fic with alternate reality
1. Chapter 1

A/N I am still working on my other story but I needed a break and this was something that was really fun to me. It is not going to make all the sense in the world until you get all the parts but it will be worth it.

This was the third time in two week that she had seen the auburn haired girl at her coffee shop. She called it hers because that's what it felt like. When she was 16 she had started working there and it had paid her way through college and even medical school, although she still had some pretty substantial bills leftover. Every morning she would sit at the back table, drink her coffee, and watch as the people buzzed through. Everyone in the town had a pattern. The high school students would come in before 8 and order fancy lattes and talk about the ways they would change the world. The business men would come in shortly after and order their coffees black, never sitting down to enjoy it but rushing off to the next meeting. Finally, there would be interlopers throughout the day who would wander into the shop in between errands and shopping. This girl, more appropriately this woman, was different. She had never seen her in the shop before and was completely bewildered by it. The town was small enough to where everyone is aware of everyone else, but she was new and not to mention beautiful.

Emily twirled her hair as she stared at the girl, fighting back the urge to get up and talk to her. In a town like Rosewood, no one is gay. She knew that the chances of the other girl being interested in her were as likely as a snowless winter but something drew her to investigate. She took her mug of coffee and poured it into the plant next to her. Empty cup in hand, she made her way to the counter, standing behind the mystery woman.

"Emily did you need something?" the newest line of high school baristas knew that Emily was a premier customer.

"Go ahead and take care of her, she was here first." Emily gave the woman a smile and got one in return.

"Thanks but I really don't know what I want yet." She moved out of the way and signaled for Emily to pass her. _Damn_, Emily thought. That really wasn't her plan and now she had to pay for another cup of coffee she probably wasn't going to drink. She grabbed the cup and made her way back to her seat, throwing another smile in the woman's direction. As she walked away she could hear here ordering the same thing she had gotten.

"What's the name on this?"

"Paige." She replied.

Emily sat down and mulled over the small piece of information she had learned. _Paige. _It was a nice name but it didn't help her that it was only a first name. She watched as Paige walked out the door hoping she didn't miss her chance. She looked down at her watch and realized it was only 8:30 on her day off which meant that she had the whole day to herself to think about this new mystery woman.

As noon approached, Emily decided her day would be better spent outdoors. It was one of those rare days in November when it is warm enough to be outside. She had packed clothes to run in and quickly changed in the Brew's bathroom. The park track was close enough to her car that there was no point moving and she made her way over to her favorite stretching bench. She threw in her headphones cranking up the Beyonce album to full volume. A few light stretches later, she began racing on the familiar track. Running wasn't her exercise of choice but when you only have so much time in the day, it is the easiest routine to get out of the way. In the time it took her to run a few miles, she would have barely been in the pool doing a warm up. She could feel the burn in her legs and pushed it out of her mind, focusing only on the music. She heard a faint sound behind her but she thought it was just the wind. Before she could refocus her energy on running, a mass hit her from behind slamming her down on the ground. Her headphones shot out of her ear and she could finally hear what was going on around her. There five or six bikes racing by coming from a blind corner. They would have completely knocked her out. She heard a groan from the body lying slightly on top of her.

"Are you okay?" Emily was the one with her back to the ground but it seemed like the other woman took the brunt of the force on her arm. She put a thumbs up still without moving.

"Here let me look at it." Emily rolled the woman off grabbing at her arm. Brown hair still obscured any facial features but she was more concerned with the scraped arm to notice anyways.

"I'm fine, it's just a little gravel."

"More like the entire path." The woman chuckled, and Emily looked up to see the smiling face. As fate would have it, she knew that smile from hours earlier.

"Do I know you?" She smiled again.

"We met this morning. I kind of cut in front of you for coffee." Emily hid her face slightly, embarrassed at her attempt to interact with the woman.

"That was a good thing. You have very good taste in coffee. What was that 2 creams, three sugar?" She started to get up, aided by Emily.

"Yes and a pump of vanilla."

"I knew there was something in there." Paige began dusting herself off but the white gravel left a mark.

"You'd think with all that coffee, you would be more aware of your surroundings." Paige pointed back to the path they had just been on. "That bike crew almost took you out. I'm sorry I had to go to such measures to get you out of the way, but you couldn't hear me yell."

"Well when Beyonce is in the ears, nothing else matters." They both laughed.

"So what do I owe you for rescue Batman?" She said flirtily.

"I think your name would be nice."

"I'm Emily…Fields." She reached out a hand.

"Paige McCullers." She shook her hand with her uninjured arm.

"Are you sure you don't want to get that checked out?"

"It's just a flesh wound. I've got to get going anyways. Gotham's not going to save itself." Paige started to walk away but turned back for another glimpse at the familiar looking girl. Emily kept her eyes on the ground trying to keep her blushing face to herself. As soon as she was alone, she couldn't stop the smile forming on her face. _Paige McCullers_ she had a full name and a sneaking suspicion that the girl wasn't completely straight. There was definitely an energy exchange between the two. She bent over on the ground to pick up her phone and head phones when she heard foot steps behind her. She turned around to be greeted by the woman again. She had a piece of paper in her hands with words and numbers scribbled on it.

"Here's my number, just in case you are in need of any more assistance…of any kind." Paige was slightly stumbling though her words.

"I thought Batman just knew when someone was in trouble." Emily bit her lip hoping Paige would play along.

"She does but sometimes I need help…" Paige took a step closer grazing past Emily's ear, "…when the call is more social than criminal…and I wouldn't want to miss that." She backed away, sliding her hands in her back pockets and she walked behind the corner.

Emily immediately grabbed her phone and clicked the first speed dial. The phone rang until a perky voice picked up on the other end.

"Em I knows it's your day off, but the rest of us still have responsibility."

"Hanna shut up. I think I found someone." The audible typing on the other end of the phone ceased, and Emily knew she had the other girl's attention.

"I didn't even think you were looking. What happened to "I need to invest in myself" and "no one ever gets me". You literally have been spewing that crap for a year since Allison left." Emily let her friend rant, knowing this was coming.

"Han I saw her today at the Brew and then I literally ran into her in the park. Well actually she tackled me out of the way of a stampede of bikes…but she was so cute and funny and pretended she was Batman. You know how much I love stuff like that and then she gave me her number."

"Slow down Em. It sounds like the next call you were going to make was to U-Haul. You're going stage five lesbian and you don't even know her name." Hanna was trying to be the voice of reason.

"But I do know her name. It's Paige."

"Okay, what does Paige do?"

"I don't know."

"How old is she?" Hanna continued.

"I don't know but she didn't look a day over 27."

"That's not a real answer. Where is she from? Is she even gay? Is she a democrat? Does she have a criminal history? Whats her sign?" Emily was silent on the phone not having any answers to Hanna's barrage of questions.

"Emily I know more about my hairdresser than you do this girl. You need to breathe a minute and then figure out a game plan to answer all of these questions."

"You're right…you always are, that's why I called you. But just to be clear you're telling me not to call her right now."

"Wait a day Em. Come over tonight and you can take me through every detail of the five minutes you've known this girl."

"Fine." Emily conceded.

The next day, Emily had to be at work at 7 am but it didn't matter because she couldn't sleep thinking about Paige. She had never had an instant attraction like this before. When her alarm finally did go off, she popped up and went through her morning routine, still thinking about the auburn haired girl. She parked in her usual spot but it felt like much farther away. By the time she got through the first three hours of work, her energy was completely gone and coffee wasn't helping.

"Dr. Fields we have an emergency peds case coming in that you're being paged for." Emily looked down at her pager and realized the battery must have died. She thanked the nurse who had come to get her and met the EMS at the door.

"What do we have?"

"Six year old female, involved in a bike versus car collision. She was riding on her training wheels with her father when a driver ran a stop sign and hit them both. The man took the brunt of the injury but she appears to have a broken arm." Emily looked down at the little girl and gave her the biggest smile she could.

"I'm Dr. Fields and I am going to take really good care of you, okay?" The girl nodded.

"What's your name princess?"

"Emma" she whispered. "Where's my daddy?" Emily looked to the EMS who signaled to a gurney coming in right behind them.

"He's right behind you. One of my friends is going to take care of him too."

"Take her to CT to make sure all we are dealing with is a broken bone and get me information on the mother if there is one so we can call it in." Another EMS came in with the belongings found on the scene. He handed Emily a cell phone, presumably belonging to the victim.

"There is a password on it so I can't get to the numbers and he didn't have his wallet on him. We are assuming he lived in that neighborhood and left it at home." Emily swiped the phone and saw that there was a four digit prompt.

"I don't even know where to begin to guess." The EMS admitted. Emily tried the corners and sequential numbers but neither worked.

"Be careful doc you only get so many guesses." Emily thought for a second and couldn't believe how easy it was. She entered in 3-6-6-2 and the phone lit up.

"How in the world did you guess that?"

"It's his daughters name." As soon as she got the phone unlocked, she scrolled through the most recent calls. The man didn't save any of the numbers in his phone. She went to the missed calls and the first number looked strangely familiar to her. She set the phone down on the front desk and reached into her pockets searching for a crumpled up piece of paper. When she finally pulled it out, she placed the neatly written numbers next to the one in the phone. They matched perfectly. She signaled the desk clerk over and gave her the number.

"Call this number and tell them we have a man in his early thirties and a girl no older than seven in our emergency rooms and ask if they can identify them." Emily tried to clear her head of the absolute coincidence that was occurring but couldn't come up with a reasonable solution so she buried herself in her work. She went to CT to check on the young girl first.

"Hey Emma how are you doing?" Emily was on the microphone outside of the scanner.

"I want my daddy." Emily's heart started to break but she knew she couldn't tell the girl that her dad was fine.

"Emma this is going to take a few more minutes do you have a favorite song?"

"do you want to build a snowman" The response was just above a whisper.

"You're in luck because I know that one." Emily had often spent time visiting her friend's children and this was a favorite of theirs. She began to sing to the girl and every time she messed up a word she could hear the little girl giggle. As she finished the song for the third time, the scans began to pull up on the screen and she looked them over, thankful the damage only extended to a broken ulna.

"Okay Emma, I'm going to have to patch you up and give you a really cool cast. Do you have a favorite color?"

"Pink." Emily figured that would be the case. As she was walking into the scanning room, the phone on the desk rang. The tech picked it up and nodded his head a few times.

"Dr. Fields they have the person you called in the E.R. lobby."

"Tell them I will be right there." She helped Emma up and placed her in a wheel chair, stabilizing the arm. She knew it was against protocol but she wheeled the girl out to the lobby with her. The automatic doors opened and Emily could see the back of a seemingly frantic woman.

"Mommy!" Emma obviously recognized even the back of the figure. The woman whipped around and ran towards both of them kneeling at her daughter's feet.

"Are you okay princess? All they said was that you got in an accident and I was so worried."

"I'm okay the Doctor was really good and she sang Elsa to me." The woman gave her daughter a peck on the head and stood up to thank the Elsa singing doctor.

"Thank you so…" She didn't finish her statement as realization started to dawn on her.

"Emily?" Emily was just as taken aback.

"Paige?"

"Doctor?"

"Mommy?"

"Emma." The girl chimed in.

"We know baby girl." Paige shushed her daughter, not able to take her eyes off of the other girl. Emily went into doctor mode and became very clinical.

"Your dau…your daughter has a fracture to her ulna which is a bone in the arm. She is going to need a cast."

"They took daddy the other way."

"Do you know where he is?" Paige looked to Emily.

"I haven't been able to check where your husband is." Emily tried to sound cold.

"He's no…" Paige was interrupted by another doctor behind her.

"Are you Mrs. Rivers?"

"No…well Yes…and no."

"Ma'am?"

"I'm his legal power of attorney." That was all the man needed to hear to continue.

"He's going to be fine. He got knocked unconscious but that was the majority of the damage. He will probably have a few bumps and bruises but you can take him home in the next few hours." A weight lifted off of Paige's chest as she heard that.

"Did you hear that baby girl, Daddy is just fine."

"I paged an Ortho consult and they are going to put a cast on her soon. For now, she needs to go back into the outpatient wing to wait" Emily started to wheel Emma away but she felt bad leaving Paige alone.

"You can come if you'd like." As soon as they got her situated in a bed, Emily went to leave to tend to her other work.

"Emily wait please." Paige walked after her pulling the partition between her and her daughter.

"I'm sorry Paige but what exactly am I waiting for? Are you seriously still expecting me to call you?" Paige tried to respond but didn't know how to word it.

"What time would work for you? Before you drop your kid off at school or after your husband goes to bed."

"That is not fair, you have no idea what is going on."

"Of course I do. The lonely house wife what's a bit on the side. I've seen it before."

"Mommy it hurts!" Paige looked back to her daughter, knowing what was more important.

"Have a nice life." Emily walked away, making it around the corner before she took a deep breath in. Of all the situations she thought she would end up in, this was not it.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

I

A/N There will be flash backs! It will be a little heavy but Paily and Haleb to come!

_**Seven Years Ago**_

"Paige you don't have to do this. I feel like we're asking too much."

"First of all you didn't ask, I offered. And second of all, you are my best friends; I would do anything for you too." The three of them continued to fill out the paper work.

"Ms. McCullers we are going to need you to sign here and here. This just states that you are giving up the rights to your eggs and that any child produced from them will not be legally connected to you." Paige grabbed the pen and signed on the dotted line.

"Anything else?" She handed back the pen.

"I just have to ask…I don't mean to pry." The lawyer couldn't quite get the words out.

"Are you wondering why a twenty something is giving up their eggs to another twenty something couple?" His face began to get red and Paige knew she hit the nail on the head. Before Paige could begin, Emma interrupted.

"I have breast cancer. I went through my last cycle of chemo and am in remission but we don't know how long that's going to last. The doctor said this is our best window for having a kid and I was always meant to be a mom." She grabbed Caleb's hand and smiled.

"The thing is the chemo killed all of my eggs. All the parts still work but there would be no way for me to have my own. Paige came up with this idea so that I could get everything I wanted, the pregnancy and the baby."

"That's a big thing for a friend to do. Do you think your boyfriend or husband would mind?" He commented.

"P is gay and basically asexual." Paige hit Caleb in the arm as hard as she could.

"What he means is that I do not have anyone worrying where my eggs go. Anyways, I was meant to be the cool aunt and will dutifully fill that role."

**6 Years Ago**

Her phone started going off and she tried to silence it but ended up knocking it from the night stand. She shifted herself half off the bed and was finally able to grab the phone. Holding herself with one arm, she blurrily looked at the caller ID. _Caleb._

"It is three in the morning Caleb, what could you possibly need?" She was still holding herself up, half of her body comfortable in the bed where the other half should be.

"It's time Paige." She didn't need to hear anything else. She fell out of the bed and rushed to throw on something presentable enough. She ran through her small apartment grabbing her keys, phone, and the small bear she had gotten for her little niece or nephew. When she got to the hospital, Caleb was waiting in a lounge. Paige ran up to him, surprised he wasn't in the room with his wife.

"Where's Emma?"

"They saw something on the ultrasound and said they needed to do an emergency c-section. They took her back ten minutes ago. Paige, he looked really worried." She dropped her belongings into the nearest chair and took him into a big hug. In that moment, Caleb broke down. Paige sat them down in adjacent chairs and held his hand.

"Everything's going to be fine. In a few hours, you are going to be a father and all of this is going to be a story we get to tell the little guy."

"Little guy?" Caleb questioned.

"I have a feeling it's a boy." They smiled at each other. They remained in silence for another hour waiting to hear anything. Caleb had dozed off on Paige's arm when the doctor walked through the door. The moment Paige saw him she knew something was wrong. She stood up waking Caleb.

"What happened?"

"Ma'am I need to talk to Mrs. River's husband." Caleb also heard the tone of his voice.

"Did we lose the baby?" Caleb grabbed Paige's hand.

"The baby is fine." Caleb breathed a sigh of relief but Paige knew that that wasn't the whole story.

"And the mother?" Paige barely got it out, when she saw the doctor's face fall.

"Your wife had a rare condition that usually goes unnoticed until they give birth. When the baby was born, the uterus collapsed and we tried to control the bleeding but it was too late. I am so sorry." Caleb collapsed on the ground. Tears started to come out of Paige's eyes as well but she knew she had to be the stronger of the two. She got down to Caleb's level and started to console him.

"Caleb I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He reached out and hugged her, not letting her go. Minutes passed as they sat together.

"Sir, would you like to see your daughter?" Caleb removed himself from Paige's chest and looked up at the doctor, shaking his head. He pulled himself up and started to wipe his eyes.

"I want to see her."

"Caleb you need to take a second." Paige warned.

"I just lost my wife, Paige. I don't want to lose my daughter too." The doctor took them through a few hallways, ending at a private nicu room. A nurse was tending to a cooing baby. Caleb stopped at the door, hardly able to move. Paige squeezed his hand and led them both into the room. The nurse, knowing the situation, looked at Caleb with sympathy. She picked up the new born baby and rocked it back and forth.

"She is absolutely beautiful and very healthy." The nurse handed the baby over to Caleb's unsure hands. The baby began to cry and Caleb tried to soothe it but looked so scared. He cradled her to his chest and the cries slowly faded away. He looked down at her and the tiny human stared directly into his eyes.

"Do you have a name in mind?" Caleb tore himself away from the trance he was in and looked at the nurse.

"Emma. Her name is Emma." He began crying again and handed his daughter back to the nurse.

"Mr. Rivers be with your daughter and we will take care of everything else." The doctor walked out of the room and Caleb sat down in the nearest chair. When everyone left, he broke down again.

"I can't do this alone." He started to lose his breath. "Paige, I have a daughter and I can't do this alone." She knelt in front of him rubbing his back.

"I'm here. I'll always be here, I promise."

**Present Day**

Paige had been standing by his bed for the better part of an hour. Every few minutes she would pace back and forth thinking it would make him wake up faster. Emma was exhausted and asleep on a pull out cot one of the nurses had found for them. The doctors didn't see any residual brain damage to cause him to be under for so long and were bewildered as to why he hadn't woken up yet.

"Caleb this isn't funny." Paige began pacing again at the end of his bed. She shook his leg and immediately regretted it, not knowing if he was injured there or not. She walked to the top of the bed by his head and ran a hand over his hair. She looked over to her daughter sleeping on the cot and was afraid she was going to be too loud. She knelt down by his ear, choosing to whisper.

"Please wake up Caleb…I can't do this alone." For the first time that day, she let a tear roll from her eye. She shook her head, thinking about how silly it was to think that would wake him up. She started to walk back to her seat when a hand grabbed her wrist. She quickly turned around, as Caleb blinked his eyes open.

"I'm not going anywhere P."

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

I

A/N Back to normal times

Emily had passed by their room every twenty minutes just to make sure everything was okay. Paige's husband, as she thought, had woken up and she was now peering around the nurse's station trying to get a peek in.

"Do you know them?" Emily grabbed the nearest chart and began pretending to read it.

"Dr. Fields you don't have to pretend you have walked by here three times in the last hour and most days I don't see you in outpatient once." Emily slightly glared at the overly observant desk nurse.

"I worked on the little girl this morning and I was just checking up." She shook her head, believing her own excuse.

"Oh…well I thought it was because of Mr. Rivers." The nurse went back to her seat but Emily was intrigued.

"What about Mr. Rivers" she asked.

"You do know who that is, right?" She shook her head no.

"That is Caleb Rivers." The tone of her voice had finality to it but Emily still had no idea to whom she was referring. She gave the nurse a warning look.

"I guess if you aren't into tech stuff you might not know him. Honestly, I didn't even realize he moved to Rosewood. It's a really odd place to retire."

"Bethany! Who is Caleb Rivers?" The nurse realized she was babbling and focused her answer.

"He is like a tech God. He sold the idea of Siri and a prototype for millions. Then he just fell off the grid. No one has heard about where he's been for months." Emily starred back at the room not able to make out his facial features completely, amazed at all the new information she was learning.

"I didn't even know he was married or had a kid." She went back to work, leaving Emily to wonder about the little family. Her wondering was cut short when the door to his room opened. Before auburn hair was completely turned around, Emily was ducked behind the desk, hiding as best she could. She heard the click of heels approaching her location and prayed they would make a turn. She wasn't so lucky.

"Excuse me ma'am." She called over to Bethany.

"How can I help you?"

"I worked with this doctor earlier and I was wondering how I would be able to reach them." Her voice was slightly nervous and Emily picked up on it.

"Well what's the name?"

"Fields." She responded. Bethany's eyes went directly to the crouched figure on the floor. Emily began giving her the throat cut symbol and prayed she wouldn't make an ass out of herself twice today.

"I don't know where Dr. Fields is…right now but I can page her." She picked up the phone and began clicking a few buttons. Emily's hand felt at her pocket, digging to get to the device first. It was too late though, the sharp beep rang through the entire area. Paige leaned over the desk, on her tip toes and peered at the figure on the ground.

"Found it! I found my earring" Emily popped up from the floor and pretended to fiddle with her ear. As she touched her lobes she realized she hadn't worn earrings that day.

"Those are really nice." Paige commented. "Is that from the invisible collection at Macy's?" She held the smirk off and kept a straight face. Emily put her hands down and silenced her pager. She starred at it, cursing it for working for the first time that day.

"What can I help you with Mrs. Rivers?" Emily deadpanned.

"It's McCullers." Paige corrected. Her good mood from watching Emily adorably lie was ruined in an instant.

"I just wanted to thank you for taking care of my daughter today. She really seemed to like you and she usually is very nervous around new people. I don't know what you said to her but it was really appreciated." Paige walked back towards her room and closed the door. Emily turned towards the nearest wall and began to lightly smack her head on it.

"That was a train wreck." Emily kept her head to the wall and lifted her hand to silence the desk nurse.

"Not a word, Bethany." The girl put her hands up and walked away.

Emily had a million other things to worry about other than the woman in the other room so she took one last longing glance at the happy family and walked towards her wing of the hospital. At the end of her shift, she decided to make one last go around the outpatient wing but was remiss to find the room empty.

"They were discharged twenty minutes ago." Bethany's perky voice rang out behind the desk.

"Thank you." Emily said dejectedly. She clocked out and made her way home. Once there, she pulled out her laptop with every intention of cyber stalking both Caleb and Paige but as soon as the screen pulled up it went black again.

"What is this, a sign from the universe?" She smacked the side of the computer and tried to boot it up again but nothing worked. She rolled over in her bed and screamed into the nearest pillow. Rolling back over, she reached for her phone and speed dialed Hanna.

"Hanna Marin's office of hopeless lesbians, how may I help you?" Emily could hear her snicker on the other end.

"Very funny Hanna…where do you go to get computers fixed?"

"I don't, I buy a new one."

"Hanna this computer is nearly brand new. I don't want another computer; I want to get this one fixed." There was a long pause on the other end and Emily was about to hang up.

"It says that there is a computer shop that is new on the corner of third and twelfth. Or there is a best buy at the mall and you can get a new computer."

"Goodbye Hanna." She drew out her words as she hung up the phone. She grabbed a pen and sticky note and wrote down the intersection. The next day she didn't have work until two so there was a window of opportunity to get her task accomplished.

**Elsewhere**

"Paige we need friends." Paige shushed him as she closed the door to Emma's room. They walked into the family room and sat down together.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I have plenty of friends." Paige snorted.

"We've been here almost two months and I think you've traveled outside of this home a dozen times excluding going to and from work."

"That's not fair. I started going to that cute coffee shop on my day off…and I quit running on the treadmill and started doing once a day in the park." Paige tried to defend her neurotic habit of being alone but she knew Caleb was right.

"This is my fault really. I moved us here away from everyone we know to get away from a ghost that was never really chasing me."

"That's not fair. We both needed to get away and Emma loves it here." Paige rubbed his back but it wasn't helping.

"We need friends Paige." She rolled her eyes again.

"Why, we have each other, I don't need any more friends."

"Think about what would have happened tonight if I had to stay in the hospital overnight. We had no one to call to help with Emma."

"Please I would have left your ass in the hospital and ran with dough." Paige gave him a toothy grin.

"I'm serious. We need people so that when things go wrong we have a support system."

"How do we get this support system? It's not like we can just go to a bar and say 'Hey me and my platonic co-parent would like to be your friend for times of babysitting emergencies'." Caleb looked at Paige with a serious face and she knew to stop joking.

"How about tomorrow we each invite one stranger we meet to have dinner with us?"

"That's a really good idea." He responded.

"Rules though…no one skeezy, age bracket of 25 to 30, stable looking, and well spoken."

"Would you like their blood type too?" Caleb laughed.

"I agree with the age but let's let the rest fall into place. Deal?" She shook her head.

"I'll call the sitter then."

The next morning, Caleb was supposed to take the day off but he was afraid his inventory was going to ship without him knowing. Paige had already taken Emma to school and gone to work so he knew he wasn't going to be caught if he snuck in for a few hours. In his defense, he wasn't going to be able to invite someone to dinner from the comfort of his own couch.

Across town, Emily was racing to get all the parts of her laptop together. She knew she should have bought the warranty but hopefully the computer place will find it's a simple problem and she won't have to bother with the manufacturer. As she walked out the door, she forgot the post it upstairs giving her the directions. When she got to the intersection, she was lucky that it wasn't a busy part of town. She got a front row parking spot to a quaint shop called "Computers R Us". She hopped out of the car to the driver back seat. She didn't realize how far into the back seat her computer bag had fallen and had to bend over to get a hold of the strap. She pulled a little too aggressively and the bag swung out behind her coming in contact with a solid object. She balanced herself on the car and realized the solid object was a person.

"I am so sorry." She shut her door and grabbed the man's arm.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He laughed. "You grazed me." He began walking to the front door of the same store she needed to go to.

"Have you been here before?" She questioned. "I am just having some computer problems and I wanted to know if they were any good."

"Well, I own the place so I would say we are okay." Emily put a hand over her face, covering up the red that was forming. The man held open the door, ushering her inside. He led her to a back table and slid around to the other side.

"What can I help you with?" Emily pulled out her computer and charger on the table.

"Last night, it turned on for a few seconds and then it went black." He fiddled with a few things and tried the on switch but everything seemed to stay off. He flipped the computer over and popped off the back, instantly noticing the problem.

"Ma'am do you use your computer on a blanket a lot?"

"Yes is that a problem?"

"Usually no, but from the looks of this you have a very fuzzy blanket." He turned the computer towards her and showed her the fan which was covered in fuzz.

"I think your computer over heated because the fan wasn't able to work. It's like a safety switch to where your computer will not work unless that fan is moving."

"Can you fix it?" She asked.

"Do you have about 20 minutes?" She nodded. He pulled up a chair for her to sit in and got to work on the computer. Emily starred at the man because he looked awfully familiar.

"Do I know you?" he looked up from his work and shook his head no.

"I just moved back here after a pretty long time away."

"I'm sorry something just looks really familiar about you."

"I think I just have one of those faces." He commented. The store was empty except for another worker in the front. Emily sat and twiddled her fingers, unsure of how to engage in small talk.

"What do you do for a living?" He asked.

"I'm a doctor."

"That's nice, I bet you love your work." She nodded. They fell into a casual conversation of back and forth questions about the hot spots of the town and where not to go. Twenty minutes later, on the dot, he put the last screw in and flipped the computer over. With one flick of the switch, it was running again. Emily was amazed at how easy a fix it had been. She pulled out her wallet from her purse and began searching for her check book.

"How much is it?" She asked.

"It's on the house but I'm going to ask you a really weird question in exchange." She smiled at him, although the air was becoming slightly awkward.

"My roommate and I just moved here and we both agreed that we need to meet some new people who know the town. This is going to sound completely strange but would you like to come to dinner with us and another friend tonight? She is great and from the brief conversation we've had I think you would like her too." He looked at her anxiously. Emily mulled over the slightly apprehensive offer. Although it was against her better judgment, she thought a night with new people might be fun. She might even like the other company as well.

"I think that would be lovely but in return for this you will have to let me buy you a drink." He nodded his head enthusiastically. He quickly grabbed a pen and scribbled down his number.

"I'm Caleb by the way." He reached out his hand.

"Emily." She returned. He gave her his number and instructions for where dinner would be. As Emily left the store, he pulled out his phone to send Paige a message. _I got mine, you better hurry up because this thing is happening_.

Paige was standing in line at the coffee cart when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She read the message and mentally slapped herself in the face. There was no way she was going to be able to get a total stranger to come to a group hang with her best friend and the random piece of work he picked up off the street. She grabbed her coffee and pondered her options as she walked back to her office. As she passed the front cubicles she remembered the sweet paralegal that worked with one of the partners. She just had to remember the girl's name. It was something very girly, she thought.

"Ashley…Becky…Lauren." She whispered to herself. She was running through every name from the nineties babysitter's club books. She went through a dozen more names before she landed on it.

"Hanna!" She realized she was louder than appropriate and slipped into her office to set down her coffee. She went back out and set out to track down the paralegal. She saw another lackey walking down the hall and flagged him down.

"Have you seen Hanna?" He pointed to an office in the back and she made her way there cautiously. She had no idea what she could possibly say to make her offer not creepy but she also was not going to let Caleb win. She knocked on the door and a sweet voice welcomed her in.

"Hey Hanna." Paige peeled open the door slowly. Hanna stopped what she was doing, a little star struck that a partner tracked lawyer would be talking to her, especially one she hadn't had two words with.

"Hi…" She didn't know her name and Paige could sense that.

"Paige." She finished the drawn out sentence.

"Hi Paige, how can I help you?" Paige ran a hand through her hand and took a breath to prevent over babbling.

"My roommate and I were talking about our lack of social outings that don't involve just us two and came to the conclusion we need to hang out with people more. I thought that there is no better place to find people then at work. I know we haven't talked much or anything…at all, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner with us tonight and one of his…um…colleagues." Paige could see that Hanna was a little taken aback by the offer. She decided to make it seem more work related and sweetened the deal.

"I thought we might talk over the DiLaurentis case because I heard you might want to assist on those proceedings." Hanna instantly perked up.

"I'd love to go. When and where?" Paige smiled and wrote down the information feeling slightly bad she had to bribe someone into having food with her. She walked out of the office and sent a text back to Caleb. _I've got mine too. Let the reintroduction into the wild begin :0. _

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Merry Christmas and Happy New Years

Paige looked over at the clock on her desk and couldn't believe it was already six. Dinner wasn't until seven but she had hoped she might get to change into something more comfortable than a power suit. She got up from her desk and walked down the hall towards Hanna's office. The lights were still on and she could see the girl typing away at her computer. She lightly knocked on the door, slightly startling the other girl.

"I'm going to head out but we're still on for seven, right?" Paige was nervous Hanna would give her an excuse about work she had to catch up on or a family emergency.

"Of course, I can't wait!" Hanna's enthusiasm was more because the forced fun at dinner might land her the biggest case the firm was working on.

"Ok see you tonight." As Paige left, Hanna remembered what day it was. She picked up her phone and clicked the first speed dial.

"Hey Hanna."

"Hey Em please don't kill me but I can't do reality tv night tonight." Her and Emily reserved at least one day a week to watch trashy television, order take out, and drink.

"Shit it's Wednesday."

"Well I guess since you didn't remember, I'm off the hook?" Emily felt bad cancelling on Hanna but since the other girl was already in the process she didn't feel as bad.

"I have plans too tonight, so we will just do it Friday or something." Hanna stopped typing. The last time Emily had plans that weren't with her was several months before, maybe longer.

"You have plans?"

"Don't sound so shocked, I have other friends." Emily defended.

"No you don't. You have me and occasionally the other two when they are in town. And on a good day you may have a friend or two at work."

"That's not fair, I work all the time. No one wants to be friends with me." She put her phone on speaker and began straightening her hair for dinner.

"Is it the girl from the Park?" Emily missed the piece of hair and burned her neck behind her ear.

"Shit!" She grabbed a cloth from her drawer and put some cold water on her neck.

"Did you burn yourself again?"

"No comment."

"The last time you burned yourself it was because we were talking about the new clerk nurse. The time before that we were talking about the yoga instructor at the gym. And the time before that…"

"Is there a point you are trying to make?" Emily interrupted.

"You get distracted when you're talking about pretty girls… which mean you think park girl is pretty."

"She's beautiful." Emily commented.

"So you are going out with her tonight." Hanna sat up in her chair, hoping for all the juicy details.

"No I am not. She's married with a kid by the way."

"When did that happen?"

"It's a long story Han. Can we drop her for now?" Hanna could tell that Emily was genuinely upset. Although she liked picking fun at Emily's personal life she knew when to stop.

"So where are you going tonight?" she asked.

"The guy who fixed my computer invited me to dinner with some of his friends...just as friends." She added.

"I'm in the same boat. One of my bosses wants to go out to talk about THE case."

"They're going to let you on it?"

"If this dinner goes well, I think so. They gave the case to this new lawyer from out of town because they are completely unbiased. She gets to pick all the aides to help and I think I'm on her short list." The girls had gotten caught up in conversation that neither had looked at the clock.

"It's almost 6:30. I am never going to make it dinner if we keep talking. Tell me about it Friday, okay?"

"Sure thing, Em." They hung up, neither knowing they would be seeing each other much sooner than Friday.

Caleb had everything prepared for the babysitter when Paige walked in. She threw her briefcase in the corner and threw off her heels in the same direction.

"Where's my baby?" She heard a squeal coming from the kitchen and braced herself for a big hug. With the cast in the way, the hug wasn't as big.

"Hi baby, how was school?" She sat down on the couch dragging Emma along.

"Everyone in my class signed my cast." She showed her mom the cast with first grade scribbles on it that were very close to well written names.

"That is so cool. Did your dad already tell you the plan for tonight?" She nodded her head.

"Alright, you have to be really nice to the new babysitter. Don't try and fool her either, bed at 8:30…Where is your father?"

"He's in his room getting ready." Paige jumped up from the couch and headed towards Caleb's room. They had bought this house so they could each have a section of the house without it being confusing for Emma. She was only six but she knew that her parents weren't together and that they lived in separate areas of the house. Caleb had the downstairs master bedroom and Paige had the upstairs mother-in-law suite. The house was extremely spacious for three people because on the off chance they would ever have a relationship it still allowed some privacy. Paige knocked a few times on the door before she entered. Caleb had several shirts strewn about the bed with matching ties.

"Caleb are you sure you want to go out tonight? You had a concussion less than 24 hours ago."

"I'm fine P. I just have no idea what to wear." Paige sat on top of all of his shirts, laughing quietly to herself.

"It's just dinner with friends. Put on a polo or something."

"What does that say about me to our new friends? I think it says that I can't afford more than three dollars worth of some bathroom polo!"

"Okay Carrie Underwood can you take a breath for a second. These people do not care if you are wearing a suit or not. Put on the blue button up shirt with your jeans and you will look fine." Caleb grabbed the two pieces of clothing she suggested and held them up to himself in front of the mirror.

"I guess this could work. But I'm not wearing this if you are going in that." Paige looked down at herself. She forgot she hadn't changed yet.

"I am not wearing this. I have jeans and a sweater calling my name upstairs." She hopped off the bed and headed towards the door.

"Are you going to wear the black boots too? You look better in the boots."

"Be careful Mr. Rivers, your inner gay is showing." Caleb threw a hanger at her and she scurried out the door. Fifteen minutes later, they were both ready to go. The restaurant they picked was a local dive that was one step above Applebee's but a few paces below Olive Garden. They had planned to get there a few minutes before seven so they would be able to get settled before their "friends" got there. They got a high top table near the entrance so they could easily find their people.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick, before we get this party started."

In the parking lot, Hanna had just pulled in. She jumped out to hurry and not be late, running into the person walking behind her.

"Were you ever not a clutz?" Hanna was surprised at the voice behind her.

"Em what are you doing here?"

"This is where I'm meeting up with that friend." She laughed.

"Me too! Maybe we won't get seated too far from each other so if we need an excuse we can run." They made it to the door and Emily pulled out her phone to text Caleb.

"If I don't pee, I am going to make a fool of myself in front of my boss. I will catch up with you later." Hanna asked a waiter where the bathroom was and quickly ran that way. Emily spotted the back of Caleb's head and walked towards him.

"Hey Caleb!" He got up and gave her an uncomfortable hug, signaling for her to sit down at one of the chairs.

"are there more friends, or was this just a set up to get me on a date." She teased.

"No…" He held his hands up defensively. "My roommate is in the bathroom and her friend should be coming soon." As he said that, he spotted Paige coming out of the bathroom with a blonde. He turned his attention back to Emily, who had her back turned to their location.

"How was work? Save anymore lives?"

"Today was actually pretty slow."

"I was there yesterday and I've never been treated so well in my life." Emily was taken aback by this comment.

"You were there yesterday?" Caleb swooped the front of his hair out of the way revealing a gash on his head that had been glued shut.

"I got mostly hit by a car." Emily's eyes began to expand as she started to put the pieces together. It was too late though.

"Here she comes. This is my roommate." Emily turned around to be confronted by the same person who had seemed to be popping up in every place of her life.

"Paige?"

"Emily?" The confusion wasn't over as Hanna slid from behind Paige, starring at the man in front of her.

"Caleb?" Caleb took a second to look at the woman and was completely floored.

"Hanna?" They all stood for a moment of awkward silence before too many voices tried to understand the situation.

"How do you know Hanna, Paige?"

"How do you know her, Caleb?" Paige shot back.

"I thought this was about a case?" Hanna asked.

"Why do you keep calling your wife your roommate?" All eyes turned towards Emily. Caleb and Paige looked at each other and began laughing.

"We are not married." Caleb defended.

"But at the hospital…you have a daughter…together."

"You have a daughter?" Hanna questioned.

"No."

"Caleb!"

"That wasn't a no to our daughter, Paige." Caleb glared at her. They were drawing attention from the patrons around them.

"Can we all just sit down a minute? There is obviously a lot of unknown information here." They all kept their place as an overly zealous waiter came their way.

"Are y'all ready?"

"No." They said in unison. He slowly backed away, not understanding what he just got in the middle of.

"I'd like to clear up some points I think some people may have wrong." Paige was looking directly at Emily.

"Caleb and I are not married. We…unintentionally have a daughter together, that we raise together." Paige knew that Caleb didn't like telling the story of his late wife, so she made sure to leave that off the table.

"You're not married?" Emily questioned again.

"No." Paige smiled.

"That only clears up one thing though. Caleb, how do you and Hanna know each other?" Hanna and Caleb both had their heads down, refusing to make eye contact.

"I can't do this right now." Hanna walked away. Emily looked apologetically at Paige before she ran after her.

"Caleb what was that?" Paige questioned.

"That was the one that got away." Paige had only known Caleb with Emma, at least she thought she did.

"I don't remember her."

"Yes you do, Halloween freshman year at Stanford." Paige tried to think back but the last decade was kind of a blur together.

"You probably don't recognize her because she's blonde now. When we were dating she was a brunette." Certain things all started to click together for Paige.

"She was your girlfriend from back home?"

"I knew I recognized Emily from before. Hanna came out to visit me on her fall break and brought a friend that was interested in transferring to Stanford. Her friend was Emily." Paige let that information slide for a bit, wanting to know more about her best friend and colleague.

"What happened between you two?"

"Three thousand miles was a long way and four years was a long time."

"I can't believe I don't remember any of this. I remember meeting Hanna for five minutes of that party but I don't remember an Emily." Paige knew she wouldn't have forgotten that girl in a million years.

"That's probably because she went by a different name the whole time she was there."

Outside, Emily was trying to prevent Hanna from completely hyperventilating. She couldn't believe she didn't recognize Caleb. In ten years he honestly hadn't changed too much but his hair was less shaggy and he had finely trimmed facial hair that covered up his baby face features.

"As soon as I saw him, it suddenly clicked where I knew Paige from."

"You know Paige?"

"So do you. She used to have these extreme blonde high lights and her hair was long but putting those two together, I know it's the same Paige."

"You aren't making any sense. I remember Caleb but I don't remember what happened." She moved Hanna onto the bench, continuing to rub her back.

"He was home schooled and I met him at some community service project we both had to do because of our records. I got caught for shop lifting and he hacked into verizon to give him free internet or something. We dated for our whole senior year until he decided to go to Stanford. We were going to make it work long distance but it fell apart the first time I went to see him."

"For Halloween." Emily interrupted, hazy memories coming back.

"Yep…and you went with me because you had a swim try out for Stanford…but we both left disappointed. You didn't get the scholarship and Caleb broke up with me."

"Did he ever give you a reason?"

"He didn't think it was fair to keep me tied down to a boy 3000 miles away who could never give me the life I deserved." Emily let Hanna softly cry into her shoulder.

"That was the dumbest mistake he ever made but that still doesn't explain how we know Paige." Hanna perked up a bit. She wiped her eyes and looked at Emily.

"You still don't remember?" Emily shook her head.

"You literally spent the entire night of Halloween with her." Emily laughed at Hanna.

"I don't remember most of that trip but I did not spend that time with her. I was with one of the girls from the swim team. They all called her…" Emily stopped her sentence, realizing how stupid she was.

"What did they call her Em?" Hanna teased.

"They called her P."

"Which is short for?" She continued.

"Paige."

**TBC **

**Flashbacks to come!**


	5. Chapter 5

A/N I just kept typing so you are getting an extra gift with another chapter! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to message me or put it in the review. I seriously take all of that into consideration.

This flashback might be two parts.

**2004**

"Does he know he's supposed to pick us up at the airport?" Emily nervously grabbed her arm looking out into the airport traffic trying to spot her friend's boyfriend.

"Chill Em, he will be here."

"Who will be here?" A voice behind them made both girls turnaround. As soon as Hanna saw him, she jumped into his arms, lacing her hands around his neck. He twirled her around as they kissed for the first time in months. Emily stood to the side awkwardly, still holding on to her luggage for dear life. Caleb set Hanna back down and reached for their luggage.

"I borrowed my friend's so we have to get it back to her." He led them to a blue prius and loaded their bags inside. Hanna hopped into the front seat and Emily slid into the back.

"We are about twenty-five minutes away from campus. Emily have you contacted the coach, Hanna said you had an official visit?" Emily tore her eyes away from the winding roads she was watching.

"Yeah, she's going to take me around this afternoon and then I am going to the swim meet tomorrow morning." It was Friday and the two girls only had the weekend away. Luckily, Emily's ticket was paid for by the university. Hanna had to beg her mother to use her frequent flier miles to tag along with Emily. Caleb had promised her that he would show her a good time for as long as he had her.

"Okay well don't forget that the party is tomorrow night." Caleb reminded them.

"I thought Halloween was Sunday." Emily commented, confused.

"It is but by the time the party has started it will be Sunday. It's kind of hard to party on a Sunday when classes start back up Monday. Don't worry I'm going to get you home in one piece." Emily laughed nervously as she continued to stare out the window. She was not one for parties and really was here for the swimming. She had to be phenomenal if she wanted to get the scholarship. As she stared out the window, she didn't know if she would be able to live in a place like this. Everything seemed way too perfect. Half the people were walking down the streets in bathing suits and the other half were wearing power suits. They all had sun-kissed skin and beautiful hair. It was like she was driving through a movie. They pulled up to a large gate that had the Stanford logo on it and she knew they were there.

"Emily where do I need to drop you off?" The coach had arranged for her to stay in one of the dorms but she wasn't sure where it was.

"Branner Hall." He made a few turns a pulled up in front of an extremely modern condo looking residence hall. Every building here had plaster walls and the same coned shingles. Caleb helped her get her bags out. Emily spotted the coach she had been talking to and walked up to them exchanging information. She ran back to the car to say goodbye to Hanna for the moment.

"Remember I'm going by Alyssa here." She reminded her friend.

"What?" Caleb heard the whole conversation but still didn't understand it.

"Why are you going by Alyssa, your name fits you?"

"Emily thinks that she has worn out her name. She has made the executive decision to go through college by her middle name, Alyssa." Caleb gave her a strange look but Emily ignored it.

"I just think that Emily sounds like a young kid but Alyssa is a college student who is may go to the library but is also not afraid to party." Caleb continued to stare at her.

"You chose odd company babe." He jumped in the car, leaving Emily to fend for herself on the strange campus. She walked up the steps and followed her coach to where she could potentially be living for the next few years.

"So Alyssa this is a normal freshman residence hall but there are options to live off campus or move to a different location." She partially listened to her as they walked through the hip dorm. They approached a room where only half the room was done up and the coach signaled for her to enter.

"Hey Emma. This is Alyssa she will be staying with you tonight." They both awkwardly waved at each other.

"Emma is a flyer on the team. She is going to take you to classes with her." The coach left and Emily set her bags on the opposite bed. She looked around the room. It wasn't at all what she had expected. The walls were a bright pink and the beds were actually big enough for a human to sleep in. The space was still somewhat small for two people but the way it was arranged at this point made it very manageable. The walls were decorated with various swim sayings and motivational posters. Overall, it was actually really comfortable.

"This room is pretty amazing."

"I'm glad you think so. My old roommate designed it. I personally think it was one puffy drape away from grey gardens but it has been a perfect home away from home so far." Emily sat down on the bed somewhat uncomfortably, she was terrible at small talk.

"Where did she go…your roommate?"

"She decided she was too cool for the dorms and moved in with some friends."

"Are freshman even allowed to do that?" Emily questioned.

"When your parents donate the money to build a rec center, you can pretty much do anything." Emma started putting books away and throwing on her shoes.

"I guess you don't like her very much then." Emily laughed.

"Are you kidding? P and I are best friends. Anyways, her leaving gave me a room all to myself. She even told the head of this resident hall to not put anyone else with me because she knows how much I like my space." Emma started walking towards the door, wordlessly signaling Emily to follow. She didn't know what she needed so she grabbed her dad's cell phone that he let her borrow and her side bag.

"I have bio, gen chem, and sociology today. The first two are on this side of the campus but then we only have about fifteen minutes to get to the next one." Emily nodded and followed after. They made it through the first two classes and Emily was slightly overwhelmed by the class sizes. She had never been a classroom with more than fifty people and these classes had hundreds. They made it to the last class and Emma was right, it was going to take every bit of the fifteen minutes they were allotted. Emma sat in the back in all of her classes but Emily didn't think it was because she was a bad student but because it offered an easy escape. A few minutes into the professor's lecture, a finger tapped Emily's shoulder.

"You're in my seat." The voice whispered. Emily turned around, completely terrified having no idea what to do.

"I..um..I didn't know…I was just…" She started to babble. The stern face she was looking at suddenly turned soft into a big grin. Emily was extremely confused. Emma popped around Emily and shook her head at the visitor.

"You are so mean." The girl squeezed past Emma into the seat next to her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't resist, look at those eyes." Emily was still confused and looked to Emma for answers.

"This is my ex-roommate that I was talking about. She had a history of messing with recruits this semester." Paige stretched her hand out and Emily took it.

"I'm Em…Alyssa."

"They call me P."

"What's that short for?" Emily asked, intrigued.

"It can be short for whatever you want." Paige raised an eyebrow and winked at the new girl. Emma pushed Paige back a bit, laughing.

"Down, girl." Emily didn't really understand that she was being flirted with. Although Alyssa was an out and proud lesbian, Emily was the good girl from Pennsylvania who's virtue was only matched by her smile.

"She's cute." Paige whispered to Emma. They both looked over at Emily and were convinced she was actually listening to the lecture and not them.

"She's out of your league." Paige rolled her eyes.

"What league would that be?"

"I'm going to go with the straight league. She has star-quarterback arm candy written all over her." Paige leaned over taking another look at the girl. She was head to toe gorgeous with a skin tone crafted by the gods.

"Want to make this interesting?" Emma's eyes got wider, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

"Paige." She warned.

"Hey Alyssa." She called out to get the attention of the other girl, while also getting some glares from her fellow classmates.

"If you've had enough of Emma for one day, I'd love to show you the natatorium."

"You're on the swim team?" Emily asked surprised.

"Well jeez thanks. Do I not look like a swimmer to you, east coast?" Emily began getting shy again, thinking she had already ticked off a potential teammate.

"That's not what I meant. You just seem like a person who isn't into organized sports." Paige laughed, because she got that all the time. Her style was edgy to the say the least and she drew more inspiration from Buffy then Rachel but she still thought she looked slightly sporty.

"Did you bring a suit?"

"Yeah, it's back at Emma's room." Emily said nervously.

"Perfect. How does a swim-off sound?" Emma put her hand over her face, barely able to deal with her friend's antics.

"You pick the stroke…fifty yards…loser buys dinner." Emily blushed at the insinuation. The extremely attractive college swimmer wanted to have dinner with her. Emily didn't know what stroke the other girl swam but she knew she would be tough to beat in freestyle. Regardless, she didn't have another stroke to fall back on.

"Deal." They shook hands and Paige fell back into her seat pretending to listen to the lecture while Emily fell back into hers pretending not to look at Paige.

They collected everything Emily needed and headed to the natatorium. There was no practice so the place was empty. Emma was going to be the official, judge against her will, and they both decided they got a hundred yards to warm up. They both got on the blocks and Emma held out her whistle ready to go.

"Take your marks…go." She blew the whistle and they both sprang off the block. Paige was far out pacing Emily but the other girl hung in. On the flip turn, Paige was an arm length in front and Emily didn't think she was going to be able to catch up. Emma knew the last twenty-five yards was Paige's best stretch but she saw the girl slack up. She got a smile on her face, knowing Paige was going to let the other girl win. Emily decided not to breathe on the last strokes and blindly hit the wall as hard as she could.

"And Alyssa wins!" Emma shouted. Paige hit the water with her hand pretending to be mad but behind the water she grinned. Emily couldn't believe it, she threw off her cap and started jumping up and down.

"I won! I won!" While Emily was distracted, Emma crouched down to Paige's level.

"I know what you did." Paige splashed some water at her, making her go away.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She hopped out of the pool and grabbed a towel for both of them.

"I guess I need to buy you dinner then." Paige said cheekily.

"What's there to eat around here?" Emily asked.

"Well, my friend still has my car so your options are dining hall A or dining hall A."

"What she means is, the team is required to eat together before a meet so we have to eat there." Emma cut in.

"I think I'll go for dining hall A, then." At dinner, Emily was swept away from Emma and Paige to talk to various coaches.

"I'm going to win this bet. She's totally in to me." Paige scooped a helping of spaghetti into her mouth and slurped it up in Emma's face.

"If you eat like that in front of her, I will for sure win. I think you're right, though. There was definitely a vibe between you two." Paige smiled at what her friend said, never taking her eyes off the girl across the room. That night, Paige and Emma were kept by the coaches, but they promised to see Emily later. Emily took this time to call Hanna.

"Hey I only have a five minute phone budget if it isn't an emergency. Where are you?"

"I'm at Caleb's apartment. We are just…enjoying the scenery." Emily knew this was code for sex.

"Okay, gross. I'm on campus with these amazing girls. I really can see myself going here."

"That's great Em. When is the meet tomorrow, I can go with you?" Emily didn't actually know when the meet was.

"Nevermind Caleb knows. His friends are on the team anyways."

"Okay perfect, I'll see you tomorrow then." Emily hung up the phone and made her way back to the dorms. She had been there less than 24 hours and she already had a comfortable feel for the campus. She waited up for the other girls but ended up falling asleep. She woke up the next morning to Emma shaking her shoulder. They had thirty minutes before they needed to be at the natatorium which was enough time for her to have her first experience with dorm showers. She rubbed her eyes awake, hoping that it wasn't just going to be Emma in the room. Emma saw her disappointment.

"P came by last night but went back to her apartment. She'll be at the meet though…I mean she's the anchor so she better be." Thirty minutes later, they arrived at the pool and Emily went to talk to the coaches again as the other girls warmed up.

"Your girl was looking for you this morning." Emma whispered to Paige.

"You are going to lose this bet so hard." Paige dove into the water and began warming up. Emily had asked the coach if she could sit with her friend instead and they agreed. She found Hanna with Caleb again.

"Hey!" Hanna hugged her like she hadn't seen in her in a month, not a day.

"Caleb which ones are your friend?" Caleb tried to figure out the differences between everyone but the coordinated swim caps and suits made it impossible.

"The first event is the 200IM so you'll be able to see them then." A few minutes later, warm ups were over and the ref signaled for the first events. Emily watched as the Stanford team huddled together, and she pictured herself with them one day.

"There they are." Caleb pointed.

"The third girl who swims the butterfly is a really good friend and then the last girl who swims freestyle is one of my roommates." Emily narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly who those two were.

"Emma and P are your friends?"

"Yeah, were they your chaperones?" Emily nodded, watching the race. The Stanford relay was in the lead but it was close. Emma jumped in the water and Emily was amazed at how smooth her butterfly was. She looked at the board and saw the girl post a 27 flat for her split. That was an all-state time in Pennsylvania. As Emma touched the wall, Paige bounded off the block. Emily watched her and couldn't believe this was the same girl she swam against the day before. Her stroke was quicker and her turn sharper. What lead they might have lost from the other strokes was gained by Emma and Paige. Paige seemed to only lengthen the lead. As she slammed her hand on the block, Emily looked up at her time. It was a 22.5, one of the fastest splits Emily had ever seen. She smiled to herself, realizing the girl had let her win the day before. After the race, Paige hopped out of the pool and searched the stands. She made eye contact with her new friend and sent her a wink.

"Do you two have something going on?" Hanna looked over at her friend.

"Don't be ridiculous, she is just very friendly."

"It seems like she wants to be VERY friendly with you." Emily shoved an elbow in Hanna's side.

"Is she coming to the party tonight, Caleb?"

"Coming?" He laughed. "She's hosting it."

**2014**

"Why didn't I remember all of this?" Emily had been sitting there putting together the pieces of her other worldly weekend ten years prior.

"There are a lot of things are brain lets us forget when we're trying to move on. You just have to figure out the reason why you forgot." On the other side of the wall, Paige was coming to the same conclusions.

"She really hasn't changed all that much. I can't believe I didn't recognize her the moment I saw her."

"Of course you didn't recognize her. She didn't even consider running into her again. If this is the universe's idea of a joke, I'm just about done." Paige silently agreed with him. She was still reaching into her memory to remember why a seemingly perfect meeting turned so bad.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

A/N To the person who said this was their favorite story, thank you that was an awesome feeling. Also I weaved some of the actual dialogue from the show into this. You will definitely pick up on it but it's interestingly reversed in some cases.

**2004**

"You were amazing!" Emily ran up towards Paige. She wanted to give the other girl a hug for some reason but resisted. Paige ducked her head slightly embarrassed. She wasn't used to people watching her swim.

"Well we have to go to a meeting but we'll see you tonight at the party." Emma grabbed Paige's arm dragging her away.

"P you've known her for 24 hours, calm down a bit." Paige rolled her eyes walking towards the locker room. She was about to take the step into the open benches when Emma stopped her. Their coaches were talking privately. Emma turned towards Paige and put a finger up, signaling for her to be quiet. Paige didn't care what their coaches were talking about.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom." She whispered, walking in the other direction. Emma stayed and listened.

"What do you think of the official visit?" The assistant was talking about Emily.

"I've seen her swim and she's good but I don't think she would make it here. We only have one more scholarship left to over this year and we still don't have a good breast stroke replacement for Johnson when she graduates. The girl only swims one stroke. She isn't a Paige who can pull that off." Emma decided she heard enough. She hit her foot on the wall to signal people were coming and the coaches broke from their conversation. She took a seat, feeling terrible about the information she just learned. The question for her now was if she was going to tell Paige or not.

**Elsewhere**

Emily and Hanna were talking excitedly about the party that evening but Hanna kept glancing over at Caleb, noticing he was uneasy. She excused herself from Emily and walked over to him.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is great." He halfheartedly smiled at her. She knew him well enough that he had something on his mind that he didn't want to talk about at that moment. She turned back and went to Emily. He ran a hand through his hair hating himself for not doing it right then and there.

"Hanna we have to go get the house ready. Emily do you want to come with us or do you have to stay with the team?" The coaches had pretty much told her she was free to explore from then on.

"I'll go with you guys."

Later that night, the party was in full swing. Emily was surprised at how many people were there. When they were planning this trip, Hanna told her she had to pack a costume just in case the Stanford crowd was into that. Hanna was right in her thinking, for once. Everyone had some type of costume. A lot of them were extremely dorky but there were a few tried and true classics like super heroes and game characters. Emily decided to go with something safe in the form of a Hogwarts student. She had the skirt, blouse and Gryffindor tie matched perfectly with a customized wand. Hanna on the other hand went for Marilyn Monroe, white dress and all. Based on Caleb's suit and hair, Emily thought he was JFK. The party had probably been an hour in and she still hadn't spotted Paige, even though it was supposed to be her party. She walked over to Caleb trying to figure out the problem.

"Have you seen P?" She questioned, a little too excitedly.

"Wow, she's already got you, hasn't she?" He laughed.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She deadpanned.

"Sure you don't. Speaking of the she-devil, she just walked in over there." He nodded towards the front door. Emily rolled her eyes turning in that direction. Her eyes got stuck mid roll and she looked at the girl across the room. She suddenly became overwhelmingly self-conscious. To her dismay, the girl was making her way towards her. While she was still en route, Emily took her time taking in the entire look. Paige was dressed in a skin tight yellow jump suit with an over exposing slit down the middle and her hair straightened well past her shoulders. She was in black heels that made here even taller. The Kill Bill ensemble was one of the sexiest things Emily had ever seen.

"I think you dropped your jaw on the ground." Caleb whispered in her ear as he passed her heading towards Paige. They hugged and he gave her a cheeky compliment on her costume. While she was talking to Caleb, Paige's eyes never left the girl a few feet away. She took a pause in Caleb's conversation to break away.

"Hey." Emily's eyes were on the floor and she really didn't want to change her position.

"Hey." She waved still not moving her head.

"I know these shoes make me a little taller but I'm up here." They both laughed and Emily took a breath in as she looked up. As soon as she met Paige's eyes, she swooned a bit. Her eye shadow was dark and mysterious which made her eyes even more alluring.

"You look beautiful." Paige commented. "I love Harry Potter. That was actually my first choice but Emma forced me into this god awful get up."

"Remind me to thank her later." Emily whispered.

"What was that?" Paige questioned.

"Nothing. I just think you look really good…and speaking for everyone who is currently starring at you, you look hot." Paige looked around just realizing how many stares she was getting.

"Why don't we go get a drink and join a game?" Emily nodded in agreement, letting Paige lead the way. She stayed a few steps back admiring the view.

Across the room, Caleb was delivering a drink to Hanna still avoiding a conversation they needed to have. At this point, Hanna had picked up on his awkwardness.

"Emily…I mean Alyssa and Paige seem to be hitting it off. If she gets the scholarship she can transfer as soon as she wants."

"Yeah…they seem pretty great." Hanna said dejectedly.

"What's wrong?"

"You tell me. I thought I was going to have a fun getaway weekend with my boyfriend but you have been completely distant this whole trip. Is there someone else?"

"Woah…it's not like that."

"Then what's it like Caleb?" He took her arm and led her upstairs where there was less noise. He found an empty room and sat her down.

"Hanna I love you but there are things at play here we aren't considering. There are things we haven't thought about because it has been so great but it's time we thought about it."

"What are you even talking about?" A tear escaped her eye but she wiped it away as quickly as it came.

"Tomorrow…you have to go back home and I have to stay here. We can't keep pretending that we can handle this. Do you know how much it hurts to watch you leave? To know that I will only ever get to hear from you five or ten minutes a week on the phone or maybe an email here and there. I can't do it. You deserve better."

"I don't want better. I want you."

"One day you are going to look back at this and it is going to be just another moment. It's not going to be today or tomorrow but it's going to happen. You are going to have a perfect life Hanna. I want a perfect life for you and I know I can't give that to you." Caleb turned to walk out the door but Hanna was already there, slamming it shut.

"Don't do this Hanna."

"Do what, Caleb? I'm standing in my boyfriend's room three thousand miles from home. The only thing I'm doing is trying to have a conversation. What do you want me to do, make this easy for you?" Caleb finally broke with a tear in his eye.

"This is not easy for me. Do you know how much I want to be able to keep you? To lock you away so no one else will ever get to be with you? But that isn't fair Hanna. We don't do that to the people we love."

"Why can't we just keep going like this?" Caleb embraced her, letting her cry into his shoulder.

"Hanna three thousand miles is a long way…four years is a long time. I want to be able to give you the world but I will never be able to do that. Not right now." She broke away from him, her makeup smeared down her cheeks.

"Is there any outcome where we don't break up tonight?" She asked hopingly.

"In another life, I will be everything you need."

"Just not this one?" He nodded.

"What do we do now?" She asked.

"We can go back to the party, or we could sit here for a bit." She made her decision by sitting down on the side of the bed. He joined her putting his arm over her shoulder. She instantly fell into his embrace and they laid back trying to hold on to the last moments they would have together.

Emily had got caught in a game of never have I ever that she knew she was going to win because she hadn't ever done anything with her life. The most scandalous thing she ever did was get drunk at a party and go skinny dipping in her neighbor's pool. Besides that, she hadn't even cheated on a test.

"Never have I ever kissed a girl." Some girl a few people away from them added their prompt. Emily suddenly got a little embarrassed. She had done that but it wouldn't hurt anybody if she didn't admit to it.

"Come on P, that finger better get down." Paige lowered her pointer finger, leaving only her middle finger which she directed at the other girl. Emily was hit with a sudden burst of confidence and put her own finger down.

"Woah, I think fresh blood plays for your team P." Emily put her head down completely embarrassed. In Rosewood, being gay was not a thing. She hoped maybe time would change their attitudes but at the moment it was an issue people just ignored. Emily hadn't even told her mother yet. Her friends knew and her last brief girlfriend obviously knew but besides that it was a tight lipped issue. Now, a roomful of Stanford athletes that could potentially her teammates knew her deepest, darkest secret.

"Just because someone has kissed a girl doesn't mean they are gay. Can you please grow up?" Paige finalized her point by throwing a beer can at her friend.

"Ignore them, it doesn't matter what you are… or aren't." Emily still got up and headed to get another drink. Paige gave the girl across the room a death stare and carefully got up to follow Emily. She turned to go into the kitchen but an arm grabbed her.

"Hey Paige we need to talk real quick." Emma looked really worried.

"You can't change your position on the bet because guess what…I just won." Emma looked a little shocked.

"She's gay?"

"Well she put a finger down for having kissed one so I think it is on the spectrum of possibilities." Emma was surprised how her friend always called who was gay. That was beside the point though.

"P listen to me…" She was interrupted by someone else calling her name. Paige used the distraction to get away from her friend. She found Emily hiding in the corner of the kitchen. Paige walked by her silently and opened up the back door putting a hand out towards the back porch where no one was.

"Is this where you take all the pretty girls?" Emily joked.

"Just the pretty ones." Paige jabbed back.

"Smooth." Emily walked over to the bench and sat down. Paige thought Emily was just going to be passing fun but she saw something in the girl she recognized. She used to be so scared about what she felt and it took going to a school like Stanford for her to feel comfortable.

"How long have you known you were gay?" Emily curled her legs to herself, nervous with the question she asked.

"I don't think I can really put a date on it. For some people it's an 'AhHa' moment but for other people they just have always known. I am definitely that second option." Paige tried to smile in a way that would give the girl some kind of comfort.

"You really are fearless, aren't you?" Emily shook her head in disbelief.

"Ha…I am not fearless."

"What are you talking about, you're out. You came out and everyone is fine with it."

"I didn't come out, Alyssa. I fell out. My entire high school team caught me kissing a girl from another school in the locker room…" She realized that the comment made the other girl tense up. "…but I'm out and whatever else happens, I don't have to worry about it anymore." She added. She didn't expect to be having this conversation in the middle of the night on Halloween. She looked inside of her house at all the care free party goers and slightly envied them. Then she looked back at Emily. The girl looked like she was about to fall apart. Paige walked over to her and sat down. Emily had her hands crossed in her lap, hunched over. Paige was about to say something but Emily started to speak.

"If I say it out loud…if I say 'I'm gay'…the whole world is going to change." She looked up at Paige, tears in her eyes.

"Yeah it will." Paige put a hand on her back. "But the new world is going to be so much better than what you're living in now." Emily laughed at her.

"How could you possibly know that?" Paige knew that words weren't going to make her point. She put a finger under Emily's chin and lifted it to her. She leaned in the few inches and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. Emily grabbed her free hand and leaned in for more. After a few moments, Paige separated them.

"I guess this isn't a bad world." Emily smiled, their foreheads still touching.

"Yeah, not too terrible." Paige was about to lean in for one more kiss, when she heard a cough in the direction of the door. Emily quickly separated putting a foot between them on the bench. Paige looked up at the intruder and was more annoyed to see it was Emma. She was nodding her head for Paige to come inside.

"Can this wait?" She asked, her head now nodding to Emily.

"No, I really don't think this can." She stepped down the stairs and dragged Paige back into the house.

"Wow, what is your problem?"

"You cannot engage with that girl anymore." Emma looked behind her to make sure Emily was still in the same place.

"Is this about the bet, I won't take your money…I promise."

"This isn't about some stupid bet Paige. She didn't get the scholarship." Paige's face fell.

"How do you know that?"

"I overheard the coaches today. She is a great swimmer but she only swims freestyle. You had to know this was going to be a long shot regardless." Paige ran a hand through her hair.

"We have to tell her. How are we going to tell her?" She leaned back against the counter. She looked out to the girl still patiently waiting on the porch.

"I really liked her, Emma." She gave a half smile and looked up at her friend.

"I did too." They both walked out to the porch, knowing it would be better to hear it from two people than just one. Paige didn't expect her to be so mad.

"Did you know about this…before we…before we kissed. Did you know?" Emily didn't wait to hear the answer. She pushed past them and went to look for Hanna. Paige wanted to run after her but Emma held her in her place.

"This isn't going to sound rational but you need to let her go. You're never going to see her again and she's going to need somebody to be mad at."

"That doesn't have to be me." Emma finally let her go but Paige couldn't find Emily. She slammed her hand against the nearest table, knocking everything off. Emma was right though, she was never going to see the girl again it wasn't going to matter what she thought of her. Paige walked over to a chair in the corner and slouched in it, not planning to move until she physically had no other choice.

Upstairs, Emily had opened and shut every single door until she finally found the right one. She found Hanna and Caleb sleeping on a bed.

"Hanna I want to go!" She cried out. Hanna jumped up knowing that her friend was distressed.

"Emily we don't have anywhere to go until our flight tomorrow." Their stuff was already packed into the car except for what they needed to change into in the morning.

"Can we just go to the airport now? Our flight is in like five hours anyways." Hanna got up and hugged her best friend.

"Yeah I think we can do that." She turned towards Caleb. "Can you drive us now?" He agreed and they got the rest of the things they needed. In an hour, they were pulled up to the airport still dressed in their costumes with no intent to change. Emily dragged her things out and walked them to the front entrance, leaving Caleb and Hanna behind. Hanna was about to walk off when she ran back to Caleb. She pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to him. It was a small pendant he had given her. It was shaped like an owl and hand her initials inscribed on the back.

"Hanna you don't have to give this back to me." He tried to give it back to her but she closed his fist over the object.

"I didn't want you to forget it. You'd forget your head if it wasn't attached." She tried to walk away but he grabbed her hand back.

"I'm not going to forget anything." He kissed her forehead and let her go, holding on to the pendant. Hanna and Emily walked into the airport away from the lives they almost had. Sitting in the plane, thirty thousand feet in the air they both admitted the truth to one another. They promised each other that when they landed in Rosewood that they would move on from California and Stanford, pretending it was all a nightmare. Paige and Caleb did the same. The wounds healed over time but the scars of that weekend still remained deep within their skin.

**2014**

Paige slumped in her chair, finally remembering everything that happened. She wished she could go back ten years and slap herself in the face. The thing was that she genuinely never thought she would see the other girl again, especially since her name is different.

"Emily I'm going to go. Please call me later to make sure I didn't drown in ice cream." Emily agreed and watched as her friend drove on. She sat back down on the bench wallowing in all the pieces that just fell back together. She laughed lightly because it felt like she was in some kind of soap opera.

Inside, Paige was waiting for Caleb to come out of a fugue state. She looked out the window and could make out Hanna's car driving away.

"I'll be back." She said to an unresponsive Caleb. Paige walked outside hoping that she would catch Emily in her car. She was in luck that the girl was just sitting at the bench. Paige slowed her approach, hoping to not startle the other girl. She coughed lightly and Emily's head popped up.

"Did you know that I went to Stanford?" Paige didn't wait for a response. "When I was a freshman there, I met this amazing girl who was a fantastic swimmer. In the brief time I knew her I would like to think I showed her a different world… even though she almost beat me in a race once."

"I kicked your ass." Emily threw in.

"I let you win." Paige threw back. Emily smiled at her but the smile faded.

"The second I found out about the scholarship I told you." Paige didn't know why she was defending something that happened ten years ago.

"That was a long time ago, P."

"Well, Alyssa, I don't like to let things go unfinished." Emily rolled her eyes and stood up to walk to her car.

"Emily, wait."

"Paige there is nothing more to clarify, I believe you." She kept walking to her car until Paige ran after her grabbing her arm.

"Look, I have been here a month and I don't know anybody. I'm a pariah at work because they already gave me a big case and my only friend is Caleb my platonic co-parent… Will you please just be my friend?" Emily looked her over and knew she couldn't resist.

"I think I can do that."

**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

A/N I know some people have asked if this is more Paily or Haleb and I am sorry if it makes you not like the story but it is going to be more Paily focused. I am going to still have tons of Haleb but I am a huge proponent of Paige. Also, please inbox me if you have any creative ideas for this story, I love to see what your are seeing ;)

"You can't be friends with her."

"Hanna, she and I are not you and Caleb. Why can't we be friends?" Hanna was looking through her freezer for what could possibly be her second pint of ice cream.

"Because I said so…I'm calling Hemily Code on this." Emily reached around her trying to wrestle away the sugar.

"You just made that up."

"No it has been a long outstanding contract between us that I have never told you about because before now I haven't had to use it." With one last tug, Hanna freed her chocolate delight from Emily's hands and went back to curl up on the couch.

"I never brought up this code when you decided to sleep with my ex-boyfriend." Emily called out.

"He was your ex-boyfriend because the only hot dog you like is on a bun and you were totally in love with the stoner kid across the street."

"I was not in love with Maya." She sat down on the other end of the couch, propping Hanna's feet on her lap. "I just thought she had good taste in music."

"You mean you wanted to taste her rainbow." Emily threw a pillow at Hanna's head barely missing.

"That is beside the point now. Why can't I be friends with a nice, funny woman who has an actual job that is outside the hospital?"

"Because she lives with and has a child with the guy who ruined me for other men." Emily bit her lip, forgetting how hard this had to have been for Hanna. She knew Paige for hours when they separated unceremoniously but Caleb and Hanna had some deep history.

"Fine, I won't be friends with her." She conceded.

"Thank you. Now, go get a spoon because this isn't going to finish itself."

"You asked to be friends with her?"

"Don't talk to me like I've committed a crime, Caleb. You were the one who said we needed friends."

"Did you really have to pick her?" Caleb grabbed the laundry basket full of clothes and headed to the family room. He began passive aggressively folding laundry as Paige continued to defend her point.

"You brought her to dinner."

"Exactly, so I should get to say whether or not you get to be friends with her." Paige sat down on the coffee table across from him, forcing him to make eye contact.

"This isn't a situation where we take a vote. I am allowed to have friends that aren't you." She could see this wasn't helping. "Emily and I being friends would not mean that you would have to interact with Hanna." Paige knew she hit the nail on the head. He stopped folding the clothes and grabbed the closest pair of socks and threw it at the wall.

"I can't deal with this right now. I never thought I would have to deal with it, actually. Out of sight, out of mind…right?" Paige nodded.

"You're pulling a trump card on this one, aren't you?" She moved her position to next to him and rubbed his back, the motion she always did when he was upset.

"Yeah, I am." She shook her head in understanding.

"But next time, when I get the trump card, there better be no arguments." She stood up and kissed the top of his head, walking off to her room. She didn't feel as defeated as she should. Even though Caleb said no, it was more of a soft maybe. He needed time to cool off from the shock of everything. She knew that he would see the light at some point, and until then she would follow his rules. Or at least she thought she would follow his rules.

Emily had left Hanna's apartment and drove the mile down the road to her own. This was the most exciting day she had had since her first day as a resident. Although she hated to see her friend hurt, she also felt a slight exhilaration at being reconnected with someone who instantly made her feel excited and alive. There was something about Paige's personality that affected her differently than other people had. As she walked up her steps, she knew that she should respect Hanna's wishes but a voice in the back of her head kept whispering _what if_. She had heard the voice before; right around the time she was realizing she was gay. She liked to think of it as her true self; the voice of reason. In this particular case though, the voice of reason could potentially get her in trouble with her best friend.

She put her purse on the counter and went to her cabinet for wine. Instead of getting a glass, she decided to take it straight from the bottle, knocking back a large helping that soothingly burned her throat. She put the bottle down more clumsily then intended, hitting her purse off the counter, spilling the contents all over the floor. She bent down to collect everything but only stood up with one item in hand; a slip of paper with carefully scribbled numbers. She took a moment to think about it before she grabbed her phone off the counter and ran up the stairs to her bed. She slid in, and typed the ten digit number into a text box. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard not sure what to type. She wasn't sure if she should be serious or playful. Instead of listening to her brain, she listened to the voice in the back of her head and typed out a short message.

Paige was just finishing with her nightly routine and had put her phone on the counter. As she moved her hand to turn off the light, her phone buzzed. For some reason, she looked around the room cautiously as if this was a prank. It was almost eleven in the evening and the only people who ever contacted her were either in her house or asleep by seven thirty. She picked up her phone and Pennsylvania number popped up. She couldn't plug in her password fast enough and went to her messages.

_My Mom says we can't be friends._

The message didn't have a name attached to it but Paige knew exactly who it was. She sat up in her bed, excited and nervous about the message. She felt like she was in high school again breaking rules and curfew. She typed something quickly and sent it before she could regret it.

_Dad said the same thing. I guess you're a bad influence ;)_

Emily didn't expect a response so quickly but was happy it came. She was glad she went with a playful tone because that seemed to be the best way to not scare off the other girl. Now, she needed another cleverly crafted message to make sure Paige knew that she wants to be friends even with Hanna in the way. She typed one thing but quickly erased it thinking it was stupid. Paige could see the ellipse on her end of the phone but it went away as quickly as it arrived. She was afraid she might have said something wrong. She thought that Emily might have taken her influence joke seriously. She was about to send something back to clarify when another message came through.

_I guess if we ran into each other sometime we wouldn't be breaking any rules._

Paige started typing when another message came through.

_And I don't mean literally run into each other this time… your last tackle would make some high school linebackers jealous. :o_

Paige decided not to respond. She knew she was tempting the fates by engaging any further and she had made a promise to Caleb she was planning on keeping…or at leasing trying to keep. Emily waited up a few more minutes but figured there wouldn't be any more responses.

Two weeks passed and things seemed to go back to normal. Paige resisted texting Emily and their paths hadn't crossed again. Caleb went back to work but had become slightly more distant. Emily had noticed the same thing with Hanna. Even though the girl always was bubbly to her face, Emily could see that she was struggling with things. Paige avoided Hanna at work as much as she could. It didn't take much effort because she was holed in her office selecting her team for her biggest case at the firm. They were prosecuting a family of embezzlers who had basically owned the town for several years. Paige wanted Hanna on the case but she didn't know how she was going to make it happen yet. As Paige was going through her files again, her phone rang and Caleb's face popped up on the screen.

"Yes Caleb?" Paige put it on speaker phone as she continued to sort through papers.

"You have to take Emma to her check-up today. They need to make sure the cast is still supporting the bone and a bunch of medical words I don't understand." Paige rolled her eyes because this was the third Emma related responsibility that Caleb had forgot to tell her about that week.

"When's the appointment?"

"Thirty minutes." She stopped filing the papers and picked up the phone, taking it off speaker phone.

"I'm going to kill you."

"Love you too, I can grab her for you from the hospital so you can go back to work." She hung up the phone and grabbed her purse and keys. Emma's school was ten minutes away and the hospital was ten minutes away from that not to mention waiting in the office to sign her out. She decided to call ahead and tell them it was an emergency so she could avoid the signing out policy. By the time she had Emma loaded in the car, there was fifteen minutes to get to the hospital, parked, and signed in.

"Hi Mommy!" Even when she was stressed, Paige knew she could count on her daughter to make her smile.

"Hi princess. Don't be alarmed but we might be killing daddy when we get home." Along with being extremely advanced in understanding her parent's predicament, Emma was also very good with sarcasm.

"I understand completely. He ate the last waffle this morning." Paige bit her lip attempting not to laugh. They pulled up to the hospital and were able to get inside just in time. Because they were new, they didn't have a primary care physician yet, so the work had to be done by a clinician at the hospital. Paige signed in at the front desk and sat down in the waiting area where Emma had already found something to play with.

"Rivers, Emma." A nurse called out from a back door. Paige scooped up Emma and they followed her back to a cozy room decorated with zoo animals. The nurse took the basic stats and told them a doctor would be with them shortly. Paige was fiddling with Emma's hair when someone knocked on the door.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Fields and I will be filling in for Dr. Jasco today." Emily had her head down on the chart and when she looked up she was met by matching auburn eyes.

"It's the Elsa lady, mommy." Emma smiled widely and Paige mimicked her smile. She mouthed "hi" over her daughter's head and got the same response back.

"Okay Emma, how is your arm feeling? I know the first weeks can be the hardest." Emily's hands were on Emma's cast but her eyes briefly flicked towards Paige.

"It's okay. It only hurts when I sleep." Emily nodded still fiddling with the ends of the cast.

"Well I think they did a really good job wrapping this up but I still think it is missing something." Emma looked at her confused.

"What is it missing? I thought they were supposed to fix me last time." Emily put a calming hand on her shoulder.

"I just meant I think it's missing my signature. You know it's bad luck if your doctor doesn't sign it." Emma looked back to Paige worried but Paige already had a marker that she pulled out of her purse. She handed it over to Emily and Emily signed the edge of the cast by Emma's thumb.

"Perfect! I think you are all set kiddo but they are going to want to do a quick scan on your arm to make sure everything is in the right place, is that okay?" She nodded. Bethany the nurse came in to take both Emma and Paige to the machine but Emma didn't want help.

"I think I can do this one alone." Paige looked at the nurse nervously but she was given a reassuring smile. Paige went back into the exam room that was still occupied by Emily.

"She's a cute kid and Bethany will take good care of her."

"That one is six going on thirty." Paige laughed.

"You know…" Emily stopped herself knowing it was none of her business. Unfortunately, the voice in the back of her head thought it was.

"You never really said how Emma came to be."

"Well, there wasn't much time for conversation in between Hanna storming out and Caleb going semi-catatonic." Paige wasn't sure how much she should give to the other woman. It wasn't exactly her story to tell but she trusted Emily for some unknown reason.

"Emma is biologically my daughter but I didn't give birth to her." This was not what Emily was expecting.

"Did you and a former partner have her or something?"

"No…it wasn't exactly like that. I gave my egg to Caleb and his…and his wife but she died during child birth." Emily reached out and grabbed Paige's hand.

"I am so sorry; I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. Thank you for telling me."

"I heard once that friends do stuff like this."

"Do what?" Emily responded.

"I don't know…share things. Besides my family, you are the only person to know the truth. Most people just assume we got drunk one night or something."

"I didn't know Caleb was married." Emily admitted. "and I don't think Hanna knows either." Paige ran a hand through her hair, knowing she was going to regret what she was about to say.

"Caleb's wife was one of my best friends but she would never want Caleb to live like this anymore. If the past two weeks are any indication I really think that he and Hanna might still have something. I have never seen him like this before."

"What are you suggesting?" Emily cocked her head.

"I don't think it would be a bad idea to make them talk to each other." She tried to put it as nicely as possible.

"You mean set them up."

"When you put it like that it sounds bad. I mean that we should so happen to cross paths…or be at the same location…maybe at the same restaurant." Paige could see Emily wanted her to concede. "Fine, I mean set them up."

"I think regardless of the outcome they need to talk and we are the only two people who can make that happen." Emily stepped a few feet closer, invading Paige's space.

"I agree…and for the record I think we are going to be really good friends." Paige bit her bottom lip, completely entranced in Emily's gaze.

"I hope so." She barely got her words out as the door opened. Emma came prancing in and sat back down on the examine table. She was luckily too distracted by the stickers the nurse gave her to notice the close proximity of her mother and her doctor. Emily removed herself from Paige's space and accepted the tablet that Bethany was holding out to her. It had the scans pulled up and Emily examined them for a few moments.

"Well short-stuff, your scans came back fine. Your bones are healing in all the right places and it looks like you might even get your cast off earlier than we thought." She handed the tablet back and crouched down to Emma's level.

"The next time you come and see me, I'm going to have this really cool tool and it is going to get rid of that pesky little cast." Emma smiled toothily but her smile slowly faded.

"Will I get to keep it?" Emily gave Paige a cautious look.

"Sometimes it's okay but sometimes we have to throw it away because the hospital tells us to." The little girl nodded disheartened. Emily rubbed her shoulder and stood up.

"I guess I will see you…later." She put her hand on Paige's and let it linger slightly.

"Yeah…I…We will see you later." Emily walked out of the room followed by Bethany. Bethany was giving her a wicked look.

"What are you even doing in pediatrics Bethany?" Emily went up to the main desk and filled in the rest of the information for Emma's chart.

"Same thing as you, filling in for somebody." The nurse lingered a little longer than necessary so Emily picked her head up from her work and looked at her questioningly.

"Is that the woman from a few weeks ago." Emily's face immediately got red.

"No comment." She grabbed the chart and put it in the basket to be filed.

"You were really good with her." Emily turned towards her wanting Bethany to just say what was on her mind.

"What are you trying to say…I was working."

"You mean you were working it."

**TBC**


	8. Chapter 8

A/N So updates will not be as frequent now that school has started back up but I am going to see this story through. Also, as a side note, I cannot believe they keep shipping Emily's girlfriends off and then immediately moving her on.

Paige loved having Thursday mornings off. It used to be because she would get to have some time to herself. Now, she liked it because she knew she could see a certain brunette. Paige and Emily decided to meet at the Brew on their day off so they could figure out what to do about Caleb and Hanna. Paige walked in the door and looked around for the other girl in her normal spot but there was no one there. She looked around a bit more but still didn't see Emily. As she walked towards the back door, she heard someone whistle. She turned in the direction and was met by a figure with a magazine covering most of their face and sunglasses covering the rest. One of the fingers clutching the magazine ushered her over. Paige rolled her eyes not believing how ridiculous Emily was being. She sat down directly across Emily and noticed the two cups sitting at the table.

"Good morning Carmen San Diego, did you get me coffee?" Emily flipped the magazine down and sneered as Paige picked up her coffee, laughing.

"You were the one who said we needed to be careful."

"I meant make sure they were at work not stalk around like bond girl number two."

"Number two?" Emily questioned.

"She's the only one that ever survives." Emily's face softened and she actually cracked a smile.

"So what's the plan?" Paige put the coffee down on the table and crossed her legs.

"I have absolutely no idea." Emily admitted.

"I think that goal is to get them in the same room for more than five minutes and make them talk to each other."

"I like that but the problem is they aren't going to want to talk and then they are going to hate us for interfering. If I know Caleb we are going to have to make him think it is his idea."

"So what do you propose?" Emily crossed her arms.

"I propose that we create situations where they run into each other and I figure after they run into each other enough they will want to talk to each other." There were a few moments of silence as Paige waited for Emily's thoughts. The other girl bit her lip trying to hold in her laugh but she couldn't help it. She busted out laughing and held on to the table in front of her. She finally composed herself long enough to respond.

"Paige this isn't a hallmark movie, people don't cross paths a few times and then magically decide to talk about their problems."

"Why not? That's what we're doing, isn't it?" Emily went to defend herself but she knew Paige was right.

"Hanna buys her groceries at the Krogers across town on Saturdays at 2:00. It's like clockwork."

"That's perfect, I'll send Caleb there to get some things, we shop there anyways." Paige reached in her bag to grab a piece of paper and a pen.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm writing down notes, obviously." Paige continued to write her notes and Emily starred at her, a smile forming at the corner of her mouth.

"That's only one run in we are going to need like fifty to get them to be civil again."

"Does Caleb box or anything like that?"

"He mostly runs around town or on the treadmill at home."

"Well get him to a membership at Hanna's gym. Tell him you thought it would be a good way blow off steam because they have boxing classes." Paige liked that and began writing it down.

"Does Hanna box?"

"No." Emily laughed. "But the yoga studio she works in is directly across from the boxing area. It is only separated by glass." Paige put up her hand and Emily gave her a high five. They talked out a few more ideas until their coffees were empty. They had a pretty good idea of how they were going to get their two friends together. Although they agreed to be friends, they both felt a pull towards the other person. Paige stole a glance at Emily any chance she could get but she knew that for now this is what their relationship needed to be. Emily felt the same way but she thought that having a friend like Paige at this point in her life was better than nothing.

"How are we going to keep tabs on them?" Paige asked a legitimate question.

"If Caleb is anything like Hanna then he tells you everything. I guess we will have to meet up and swap information. I don't know when though because our schedules are so different."

"Why don't we do lunches? Tell me when you're free and I can plan my lunch hour around it. I'll just come to the hospital, if that's alright?"

"That's perfect!" Emily said a little too enthusiastically. They sat there for a few more moments just smiling at each other.

"So, how do we do this? Do I leave first and do a loop around the bar and then leave through the side door or do you put your glasses back on and escape through a window in the bathroom?"

"I think we both can just leave." She winked.

Saturday came faster than Paige expected. She had been so busy with her cases that she nearly forgot the plan in its entirety. She had finished making breakfast when Caleb and Emma sleepily showed up at the kitchen bar in their pajamas.

"Good morning sleepy heads."

"Good morning Mom." They both responded. Paige put plates in front of them and put the pancakes she had made on them. She grabbed her own plate and they all began to eat while Paige tried to think of how to get Caleb to go to the store at the right time.

"So Caleb…I was looking through all of our supplies and it looks like we need to do a major grocery run." Caleb didn't really pay attention to her because he was cutting up Emma's pancakes.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yeah you are going to the store." Paige rolled her eyes.

"No, I was thinking you could go to the store. I need to get some things done for work."

"Okay, I guess I can go after breakfast. Can you make a list?" Paige looked at her watch and realized it was only ten thirty which meant she needed to stall for at least three hours.

"Why don't we have a lazy morning and watch a movie and then you can go this afternoon." Caleb eyed her suspiciously but Paige but on a good front. After breakfast, Paige threw the plates in the sink and met the other two in their living room. She put on the longest movie she could find and snuggled on the couch. Emma laid down across Caleb and Paige with her head on side and her legs on the other. They spent most Saturdays like this because it was the only time they all got to be together. As the movie started, Paige slipped out her phone and set a text to Emily.

_We're good on my end._

Paige waited for a response but none came. As the movie ended, it was almost one thirty and Paige knew she had to start getting Caleb out the door. Paige didn't wait for the credits to start rolling before she jumped up and grabbed a piece of paper from the kitchen. She scrawled down a dozen random things they didn't have and might need. Emily had mentioned how clean Hanna ate so she made sure to put a lot of fruits and vegetables on the list. When she was done, she rushed back into the living room, surprised to see no one there.

"Caleb?" She shouted down the hall.

"Hold on we're almost ready." He called back. He and Emma came out of the laundry room freshly clothed in jeans and long sleeve shirts.

"If you need to get work done I figured I would take the munchkin with me." He started to tickle Emma and everyone laughed, well everyone but Paige. She did a slight chuckle as Caleb grabbed the list from her hand. He grabbed Emma's non-broken arm and they walked out of the door. Paige went to her phone and still saw nothing from Emily. _This is going to be interesting_, she thought to herself.

Caleb made it to the store right on time. He hadn't looked at Paige's list yet so he had no idea where he was going. He grabbed a buggey and Emma took her usual position standing on the pack end of it while he pushed. She had a little bit more trouble with her cast but she still thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Caleb looked at the list and saw things from every corner of the store.

"Your mother is crazy." He commented.

"I'm going to tell her you said that." She teased.

"If you do then I won't add those capri suns you like." Emma's face fell and she mimed zipping her lip. When they walked through the automatic doors, Emma jumped off the end and started to walk next to her father.

"The majority of this stuff is in the produce section so we can go there first." They turned right going into the large produce area. Caleb began working his way from left to right obtaining the various fruits and vegetables Paige so desperately wanted.

"Daddy can I go get my drinks? They are just in that isle right there, I promise I will be fine." He had so many things to get there he figured it wouldn't hurt anything.

"Come right back, though." She rushed off into the drink isle. She looked where they usually were but didn't see any. She was about to go back she saw one last box on the top shelf. She tried to reach it but it was about a foot out of her reach. She looked around and saw a woman only a few feet from her getting her own drinks. She walked over and reached up as far as she could to tap on her shoulder. The woman was startled but softened when she saw it was just a little girl.

"Excuse me ma'am. I'm sorry for interrupting but can you help me please."

"Of course, are you lost or something?"

"No I'm six I don't get lost. I'm just too short to get my drinks and my dad said I can't take too long." She laughed and followed the girl to where the unreachable drink was. Emma pointed to the top shelf and the woman grabbed it for her.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry this back for you? I'm not sure you can get it with one arm." Emma thought it over quickly.

"My dad doesn't like me talking to strangers so I don't want him to know I had help." The woman held out her hand towards Emma.

"My name is Hanna." Emma shook it with her good arm.

"I'm Emma." Hanna tucked the drinks under her arm and pointed for Emma to lead the way.

"Now we aren't strangers anymore." She glanced back at her cart and didn't think anyone would bother it. Emma walked to where Caleb had been before but didn't see him. She spotted him on the other side of the vegetables where the fruit was.

"There he is." Caleb was bagging up some apples when they got there.

"Hey your daughter couldn't quite reach…" Hanna stopped midsentence as Caleb turned around. Hanna set the drink box in the top of the buggy and tried to walk away.

"Hanna, wait." Hanna slowly turned around, red in the face from a mixture of embarrassment and distress.

"This is my daughter Emma."

"We've met." Hanna tried to give a smile but she found herself wiping a tear out of her eye instead.

"She helped me get the juice boxes because I'm a little too short." Caleb picked Emma up and held her on his waist.

"Is that right princess? Well you need to say thank you because that was a really nice thing for her to do."

"Thank you!" Emma gave a toothy grin that Hanna couldn't resist to smile back at. She bit her lip not knowing what to say.

"I sort of left my cart stranded in an isle so…" She started to walk slowly backwards.

"It was nice seeing you." Caleb said sincerely.

"You too." Hanna walked back to her cart and let out the breath she had been holding in. She looked at the few things she had in her cart and decided to check out with only those things. Caleb continued to get the asinine things on Paige's list. Every time he turned a corner, he secretly wished she might be there but every time he was disappointed.

"Daddy why are you so sad?" Emma took him out of his head and she weaved in front of the cart.

"I'm not sad Princess. I just haven't seen that friend in a long time and I missed her."

"Like how I miss my friends from California?"

"Exactly like that." He scanned the rest of the list and decided that Paige was going to have to live without those things because he wanted to leave.

As soon as Hanna got to the car, she pulled out her phone to call Emily. It rang a few times before she heard the familiar voice on the other end.

"Emily I need you. Can you meet me at my house in twenty minutes?" Emily agreed but was starting to regret this plan. She knew there was something between Hanna and Caleb but there were so many hurt feelings left there, a connection might not have been enough. Emily got to Hanna's apartment as soon as she could and the door was already opened. She found Hanna once again on the couch with ice cream.

"Hanna we can't eat out problems anymore." Emily threw her purse down on the table and slipped her shoes off. She plopped on the couch opposite Hanna, throwing her feet across the girl's waste.

"Why am I here Hanna?" She knew why she was there but she thought asking might make it less obvious.

"Do you know that crazy feeling you get when you are singing a song in your head and then you turn on the radio and that's the song that's playing?"

"Sure…"

"That's what happened today. I have not stopped thinking about Caleb and all of a sudden there he was. I was minding my own business and I kept on thinking about all of these things that happened years ago and someone poked me. The next thing I knew I wasn't just thinking about him but I was looking at him..." Hanna took a large spoon of ice cream and swooped the spoon through the air. "…and I met his kid! She's got his dimples too and that mischievous grin." Emily was surprised by this information.

"You met Emma?"

"Yeah…how did you know her name?" Hanna turned the spoon on Emily.

"I was the doctor there when she came in with the broken arm."

"So you've known about everything this whole time." Hanna asked accusingly.

"No!" Emily defended. "I worked on Emma but never saw Caleb until later. I only put the pieces together when we were at dinner. After that night, you didn't seem to want to have anything to do with any of them. I was just trying to respect your wishes." Emily was nervous she had dug herself into deep. She hated keeping anything from her friend.

"I'm sorry for sounding so mean about it. This is all surreal to me. I never thought I would see Caleb Rivers again. When he said he had a kid, for some reason I didn't picture something that could walk and talk and think. I guess I didn't think I would meet her. Em she's the sweetest little thing."

"I know." Emily confirmed.

"This is going to sound weird but seeing her today made seeing Caleb even harder."

"Why?"

"As I walked out of the store I kept thinking that if we had stayed together that could have been our kid. That could have been us shopping for groceries. That could have been my life. Looking at how happy they were together made me sad because…because I know I could've been that happy too." Emily's heart broke as tears streamed down Hanna's face.

"I didn't realize you felt this way." She admitted honestly.

"Emily it's just like a song on the radio you haven't heard in ten years. The second it comes on you remember every word and you sing it like a moment hasn't passed. There are some people who do that to you. I wish he didn't make me feel this way but unfortunately our hearts and our minds aren't always on the same page." Emily moved her legs off of Hanna and scooted next to her, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close.

"What are you going to do now?" Hanna wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I've decided to let fate decide. If I see him again, I'm just going to do it. I'm going to talk to him so we can finally get some closure." Emily rubbed her back deciding whether or not she was going to play fate.

After Caleb got all of the groceries inside and Emma in a room for a nap, he found Paige in her study working. He knocked on the door frame and she picked her head up from her work. Paige could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to talk. Wordlessly, she scooted her chair away from her desk and patted the couch to her right, signaling for Caleb to sit down. He did, running his hand through his hair like he always did we had something on his mind.

"Do you think she would be proud of me?" Paige was afraid this is where the conversation was going and steeled herself for whatever emotions were about to come out.

"You have raised her daughter to be kind and generous. You have never left that child's side when she so much as got a paper cut. You have created things that have changed the world. There is nothing in your life that she wouldn't be proud of."

"Paige I need to say some things that I don't know how to say. I'm afraid to say them actually." Paige took his hand and rubbed in gently, letting him know she would never judge him.

"I saw Hanna today. Somehow she was helping Emma get something and when I looked up at the two of them standing over the buggy smiling about the groceries they found, I had a moment where I thought that was my life. It was the strangest thing I've ever experienced. It was like I was living in an alternate life for an instant where we were a normal little family getting groceries. It only lasted a millisecond but it was enough to make me hate myself."

"I don't understand."

"Ever since Emma died I have never thought about being with anyone else. I truly loved her and since then I have never even been attracted to another person. I accepted a long time ago that I would live my life alone but then we moved her and for the first time in years I have felt something that I thought I forgot how to feel."

"What's wrong with that Caleb?"

"You don't understand Paige…you can't ever understand or at least I hope you never will. When you lose someone you love, moving on is like slowly picking away at their memory. With Hanna it's even worse. I knew Hanna before Emma and it feels like if we pick up where we left off even as friends, I'm erasing the last ten years we weren't together." Paige tried to fight back the tears but as soon as Caleb began she couldn't. She couldn't imagine what her friend was going through and she felt partially responsible.

"Caleb Emma would want you to be happy again. You don't know this but after her first round of chemo when she wasn't sure she was going to make it, she made me promise to always watch over you. That meant when the time came I had to help you move on from her. You're allowed to be happy Caleb. She will never be mad at you for trying to be happy. I honestly believe that people don't have just one soul mate. I think we have many paths in life that we go down and there is someone waiting for us in every path. The people we meet and love help us to get where we are supposed to be. Sometimes those people don't get to stay with us for the whole journey but they lead us to the people that will."

"How can you be sure of things like that?"

"I can't really. The only thing I am sure of is that while we are still breathing we have to take every opportunity we get to feel love." Caleb laid his head on Paige's shoulder, nuzzling into his favorite spot.

"What would I do without you P?"

"I'm just here for the journey…" Caleb got off the couch and began to walk out the door. Paige knew the routine. After the talked, he would always need a few minutes by himself to feel.

"What are you going to do next?" Paige called out to him.

"I'm going to wait to see if an opportunity presents itself." Although his answer was reassuring, his tone was unconfident. Paige sat there a few moments longer before her phone rang. She picked up the line but before she could greet the caller they already began to speak.

"Are we terrible people?" Emily's voice was trembling.

"I don't know." Paige admitted.

**TBC**


	9. Chapter 9

A/N I'm not going to lie guys, I am not a Talia fan. She seems sweet and all but I am really nervous about her age. A 17/18 year old really needs to be with someone who is also in that demographic. It's just my opinion and it might be because I am super Paige biased but whatever. On with the show…

"For some reason, I imagined hospital food tasting a lot worse than this." Paige took the last bite of her pudding.

"I actually called ahead and made sure they pulled out all the stops today." Paige's eyes got a little wide believing Emily for a moment.

"I'm kidding. The food here does happen to be above average. If one of my kids gets through a big milestone, I always have the kitchen whip them up something special."

"You never have told me how you got in to all of this." Paige motioned to the room with her spoon.

"Well, I majored in biology in undergrad and thought I was going to go to physical therapy school but then I met this amazing mentor who told me to look into medical school. I got in to a few near here but decided to follow my girlfriend at the time to Massachusetts and went to UMass. We broke up and I came back here to blow off steam. I was going to take a year off before my residency but fate had a different plan. My friend's daughter got hurt and they brought her here. I was so impressed by the staff and the caliber of the residents that I asked if they had any openings. Now I'm in my fourth year as a resident in pediatrics." She took another bite of her salad like everything she said wasn't extremely impressive.

"That's incredible…you're incredible." Emily started to blush but played it off by asking Paige the same question.

"So how did you end up here?"

"I was born and raised in California. I went to undergrad at Stanford…but you know that. After I graduated, I was already headed to Stanford law when Caleb asked me to be an egg donor. I of course said yes and about a year later I was a second year law student with a kid. We managed well because Caleb stayed home with her and I finished school. Caleb was some tech god there and was able to do all he needed from a space he made. He ended up inventing this new program that he sold for a small fortune but with that came a lot of problems from our supposed friends here. This past summer he asked if we could move to Rosewood and I thought it was a good idea. Being in the same place for so long can be suffocating. The firm I was with recommended me to the place I work now and with any luck I'll be a partner in a few years." Emily was just as impressed with Paige as Paige was with her. There was one thing that had been bothering her though that she was a little timid to ask.

"Paige, can I ask you something that might make you mad?" Paige nodded timidly, unsure of anything that would possibly make her mad at the other girl.

"How did you go from being a donor to a mom like that?" Paige could tell that Emily was afraid she had gone too far. She put a reassuring hand on the other girl's wrist so she knew everything was fine.

"It wasn't just like that. I promised Caleb from the beginning I would help him and when Emma died I knew that I was going to have to help more that I had planned. We moved in together partly because he couldn't stay in the same apartment they lived in and partly because he needed another adult there to keep him from going insane. For months, I treated the situation just as we had planned. I was going to be the cool aunt and Caleb was going to be her only parent."

"What changed?" Emily interrupted.

"It wasn't a change we made. Whenever I had her by myself at the store or even at work, people would say how good of a mom I was. I would correct them and say she was my niece but Emma caught on. When she was five months old, she started to say 'ma' which turned into 'mama'. I talked to Caleb about it and told him as she grew up we would just correct her but he said that we would be lying because I was her mom. That's when we figured out our roles in her life and how we were going to co-parent. Some days I still worry that I am not a good enough mom for her. Emma was always the maternal one."

"I think you are an amazing mom. You make it look almost easy." They both laughed.

"I only have a little bit of time left for lunch and we haven't even broached the subject of Hanna and Caleb." They began filling each other in on what their friends had told them, sparing no detail. Paige thought she was getting to know Hanna even though they had spoken a sum total of a dozen words to each other.

"What's our next move? Is there a next move?" Both were legitimate questions that neither had a solid answer on.

"If what you said about Caleb is true and he wants to talk about it then I think we need to throw them together again."

"I say we just lock them in a room." Paige was completely serious.

"You know in some states that is considered abduction."

"Your point?" Emily kicked Paige's leg under the table.

"Be serious. What did he say when you brought up the gym membership?"

"He asked if I was calling him fat and said nature is man's free gym."

"What about the store again, that seemed to work." She suggested.

"Not this weekend…he is leaving on a work thing Friday morning." Emily huffed in frustration. She checked her watch and realized she had over stayed her welcome with getting very few things accomplished. Paige picked up on her queues and began clearing up the table. They walked together and threw away their things while Emily listed off things that Paige quickly shot down. Emily took them through the outpatient wing because it was closer to where Paige parked.

"Why is it so hard to get two people in the same room over a common cause?" As Emily said this, they passed a room with the door open and voices coming from it.

"It's not like I want to be here either. She fainted at work and you were her emergency contact who else was I supposed to call?" The woman's voice got quitter as the door was shut for privacy. Emily stopped her walking and turned towards Paige. Emily gave her a wordless nod to the hospital room which confused Paige. She realized what Emily was implying and shook her head vehemently.

"No." She continued walking but Emily grabbed her hand.

"Come on Paige it's perfect." Paige shook her head more.

"I am not…" she realized her voice was loud so she bridged the space between her and Emily and began to whisper. "I am not faking a medical emergency to get tweedle dee and tweedle dumbass together."

"I could give you something that would make you pass out for like an hour. They would scoot you on over here and then voila everyone is together." Emily was actually really pleased with herself over this idea but Paige was mortified.

"You're delusional." Paige didn't realize they were standing in front of the admitting desk until a small cough interrupted their argument. Both women turned towards the girl behind the desk, embarrassed over their conversation.

"Now she probably thinks we are crazy too." Paige gestured to the nurse as she walked away. Emily could tell the nurse wanted to say something but put a hand up to her.

"Not a word Bethany." She ran after Paige, luckily knowing the layout better than the other woman. She took a short cut and rounded a corner nearly running Paige over.

"Did you mother ever teach you to look where you're going?" Paige was half serious half joking and Emily was out of breath.

"Listen, Hanna is my best friend. If it wasn't for here I would still be in my pajamas every day crying or watching the Notebook. She was the one who kicked my ass into gear and taught me that happiness is a choice we have to make for ourselves every day. I want more than anything in this world for her to be happy and I will do anything to make that happen…even something as stupid and crazy as drugging you and faking a medical emergency." Emily crouched over a bit, catching her breath from sprinting.

"Fine." Her head shot up and she enveloped Paige in a spontaneous hug.

"You're not drugging me though; I can act just fine on my own. What do you say we do this sometime next week? I have to pick paralegals for my case anyways so it will give me an excuse to be one on one with her. It'll have to be Monday though because Caleb doesn't open the store then."

"You're seriously going to do this?" Emily asked incredulously.

"If I love Caleb half as much as you love Hanna, I don't think I really have a choice. You're going to have to set it up though. I don't want to get here and they want to take me into surgery or something." They both laughed.

"You watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy, don't you?"

"I might." Paige started to walk towards the exit but had one last question. "Is it true about the on call rooms?"

"Yes." Emily winked as she walked back to the peds floor. Emily couldn't believe she had to wait until the next week to put their plan in action. She really just wanted an excuse to talk to Paige. She knew there was a little bit of selfishness in her plan for Hanna. She truly wanted her friend to be happy again or at least have closure but at the same time she was also enjoying having someone as engaging as Paige in her life. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so connected to a person without instantly trying to jump into a relationship. Her biggest flaw was getting into things before she was ready. The second she felt something for another person she was already ready to introduce them to her family. It wasn't that she was desperate or clingy but she just had one of those hearts that was meant to love others fully and unconditionally. Her mom told her it was the heart of an angel because she was able to give without ever expecting to receive. This is what made her so good at her job. Where most people find strength in their mind, Emily always found strength in her heart and she never regretted acting on her heart even when the outcomes were unfavorable.

Emily spent the next two days making sure that their little plan was actually possible. It would mean that she would need to pick up an extra shift in the E.R. that day and she would have to clue Bethany in on it so that she would get Paige's case. Her only worry is that they would have a big trauma case come in that needed real attention. They both agreed that if it wasn't completely dead in the E.R. that they wouldn't go through with it. Emily was caught in her thoughts when her phone buzzed. She saw a text from a number she still hadn't saved.

_I need a favor. Call me. _

Emily smiled to herself a little wondering what she could possibly do for Paige. She picked up the phone and clicked the call button. It wasn't an entire ring before someone on the other end picked up.

"Hey what can I do for you?" There was a long pause on the other line and Emily thought the call might have dropped.

"Paige?"

"Yeah I'm here…okay so what I'm about to ask you, you can completely say no to. I'm serious there is zero obligation."

"Okay." Emily muttered unconvincingly.

"You know Caleb is out of town so it's just me with Emma but they just dropped off a deposition on my desk that is going to take me well after she gets out of school. I called all of our usual babysitters but because it is a Friday evening everyone is booked solid. Is there any way you can pick her up from school and watch her for like three hours? I would bring the work home and do it but I have to run the numbers with another guy here." Emily took a breath, taking in all of the information. She really didn't know if she should say yes. Paige and her had been becoming friends but not 'watch my child while I'm not there' friends. She wasn't afraid of the kid but for some reason she thought that watching her might break the bubble her and Paige had been living in. Knowing someone has a kid is one thing, but being around the kid extensively makes them a lot realer.

"Emily, you there?"

"Yeah I'm here." She quickly responded. "That would be fine…just text me the details of everything." She could hear the exhale of relief from the other end which reaffirmed her choice.

"You are an absolute God send. I will text you everything now. I should be home before bed time and if she tries to hoodwink you into watching Frozen tell her the DVD is broken." They said their salutations and hung up. Emily waited anxiously for the text. It was only one in the afternoon which meant she at least had two hours before she needed to get Emma. She wanted more than anything to call Hanna and tell her how she was feeling about the situation but she knew she couldn't. Even though she couldn't talk to Hanna about it, she needed to talk to somebody. She scrolled through her phone and clicked on a name she hadn't talked to in a while. It rang for a long time and she thought she was going to miss them. She was about to hang up when the other line picked up.

"Em, it's two in the afternoon most normal humans are at work." A smile spread from cheek hearing her friend's voice.

"Hi to you too Spencer…can I borrow like five minutes of your time?"

"When Emily Fields calls you do you have a choice?" She joked.

"I need your opinion on something and you can't talk to anyone about this." Her and Spencer had always come to each other when they needed the straight up truth. Neither of them ever sugar coated the situation. They hadn't talked in so long mostly because of distance and work. They still emailed back in forth the important stuff but actually picking up the phone was something hadn't gotten around to in weeks.

"Shoot." Emily imagined Spencer leaning back in her desk with her feet propped ready to give the advice of the century.

"So I met this girl."

"You met a girl?" Spencer already interrupted her.

"Just listen Spenc. We knew each other years ago and we have bonded over…over this planning committee thing and it has been really nice to just be friends and not try to make it any more even though I know she is gay but she asked me to do something today and I don't really know what to make of it."

"She is a single, available, lesbian in Rosewood and you haven't put on any moves? What is her dysfunction?" Spencer questioned.

"Don't act like I try to marry every lesbian that is breathing in a three mile radius. I have been single for a year and haven't had a serious relationship in four…anyways she asked me to watch her kid today and…" Emily didn't get to finish before Spencer interrupted again.

"She has a kid? I knew there was something."

"The kid isn't the problem Spencer. I like the kid but I don't know what it means that she is asking me to watch the kid." Emily explained the situation with as few details as possible. She only included how recently Paige came to Rosewood and why she needed someone to watch Emma.

"On one hand it could mean that she trusts you enough to watch her child in her home which means she also trusts you enough with her heart. On the other hand, it could mean she really couldn't get a babysitter and knows nobody else to watch her kid."

"Which one do we think it is? I really like her Spenc but what if I read everything wrong and she doesn't feel the same way?" Emily felt like she was 16 again.

"I don't know. Just let it play out and there will be a sign somewhere that will give you your answer." Emily wasn't completely satisfied with that answer but she accepted it. She thanked Spencer and they promised to talk sooner rather than later. Emily read over Paige's text one more time to make sure she had everything right. She left extra early so she would get a spot in the parking lot. Because Emma was in kindergarten, she had to be signed out of school. As Emily walked towards the front entrance, she got another message.

_Ran into a problem with the school but found a solution…just go with it _

Emily had no idea what that meant and didn't have time to figure it out. She navigated the school and found a small classroom in the back labeled 'Mr. Price's Class'. She opened the door and looked around still not sure how it the process worked. Luckily, Emma spotted her. The little girl ran up and hugged Emily's knees.

"Mr. Price said you would be picking me up today!" Emily smiled up at the aforementioned teacher but received a slight glare in return. She didn't understand his hostility but went with it because it was only for that day. She saw another parent writing in a book and went towards them. Emma, in the meantime, was collecting her bags. She opened the binder and saw it was in alphabetical order. She flipped to the end where the 'R's' were and found Emma. There appeared to be a new page inserted because all of the other pages were green and this one was pink. She scanned the page to figure out what to do. It had the basic information of the student's name and address at the top. Then there were spaces for each day with three names Caleb's, Paige's and hers. Next to the name was a description of their relationship to the student. Caleb and Paige had father and mother, respectively. She wasn't even paying attention to the words next to her name until she began to put her signature down. To the left of where she was writing it read "Emily Fields- Parental M S/O". She wasn't exactly sure what that meant. She signed her name anyways and walked over to the teacher.

"Hi Mr. Price I'm Emily Fields." She put out her hand, and he shook it.

"I was just wondering what Parental S/O meant." She flashed him her biggest smile but he still seemed annoyed.

"The parental stands for the parents of the child…" Emily took in a deep breath, willing herself not to hit him.

"And the S/O means significant other. Put it all together and that is just school speak for significant other of the student's parent." Emily nodded kind of wide eyed.

"That is you, correct?" She shook herself back into reality and nodded. Emma was standing beside her, absorbing all of this information.

"Let's go kiddo." She ushered Emma out the door, giving a glare back to her rude teacher. Emily got her strapped into the car and was ready to take them back to Paige's house, another place she did not think she would be going to so soon.

"Hey Emily?"

"Yeah kiddo?" Paige had warned her that Emma was prone to ask a lot of question.

"What does signipitent other mean?" Emily mentally slapped herself in the face.

"It is like who you are dating." She wasn't sure if Emma understood the concept of dating but she wasn't going to explain farther than that. She started to pull out, hoping that conversation was over.

"Oh…so are you dating my mom or my dad?" Emily stopped the motion of the car and put her hand over her face. This was going to a long evening.

**TBC**


	10. Chapter 10

A/N I kept writing and thought I would at least get this plot point all done. I have a plan for this and I think you guys will like it but if you have questions, comments, or concerns just message me!

Emily turned into the driveway of the house her GPS took her to. She was surprised how close it was to her parent's house. If she went down the next street and over she would have hit it. She put the car in park and got out. She made sure to child lock her back doors so she had to let Emma out as well.

"Okay, so you're mom said you knew where the key was." Emma nodded silently and walked up to the porch. She picked up an extremely obvious rock with her broken arm and struggled to pull off the back of it. Emily came into help and pulled off the cover to reveal a small key.

"That's not a very safe place to hide a key."

"That's not the key." Emma laughed. Emily was confused and let Emma take the key out of her hand. She walked to the edge of the porch where a bird house was sitting. Emma put the key into a hole in the back of the house and opened a hatch where the house key was sitting.

"You guys are an interesting bunch." Emily commented. She took the key and opened the door. Walking into the house, she was surprised at how spaced out it was. The whole living area leading into the kitchen was completely open with steps leading down to a large sitting area and pillars separating that room and the kitchen. Everything was painted white except one wall which was bright maroon. Emily looked at her watch and planned out the evening. If it was 3:30 then and Paige didn't get back for several hours it would mean she needed to cook something for dinner. She was nervous trying to navigate another person's kitchen and she considered ordering in. That problem was going to have to be a concern later because now she was standing in the middle of the hall with no child in sight.

"Emma!" Her voice echoed through the acoustically sound house. She set her bag and keys down and walked towards the first hallway.

"Emma." She spoke again. A head popped out of a door a few feet away and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I was just changing out of my uniform." She said matter of factly.

"Okay just come back in the living room when you're done." Emily sat down on the couch and waited for Emma to come out. She shot a text to Paige so she knew everything was fine.

_The package has been delivered._

She figured Paige wouldn't respond because of the case load she had. Emma came out of the hallway and plopped down next to Emily now wearing an adorable but mismatched pair of red pants with a bright green shirt.

"So what do you usually do afterschool?"

"First I change. Then, I usually eat a snack or something because dinner isn't until six. If I have homework I do it but my school is kind of boring so we don't have a lot of homework. My mom got me these books that I like to read instead." Emily was surprised that a kindergartner could read.

"Do you read well?" She asked.

"My teacher says I read better than second graders. Before I went to school here, my dad taught me at home and we started learning reading and writing. I wish I was better at it because I see some of the third graders talking about these books called Magic Treehouse but I can't read that well yet." Emily could tell the girl was really upset over this even though she should be happy that she could read at all.

"Do you have any of those books?" Emma nodded her head fervently.

"Go grab one and I'll grab you something to eat and we will read it." They both hopped of the couch to opposite directions. Emily went into the kitchen unsure of where she was going or what she was getting.

"If I were a child appropriate snack where would I be?" She muttered to herself as she looked at the dozens of cabinets. She didn't want to start randomly opening things because it would be a violation of their privacy. She opened the fridge and saw kapri sun drinks and grabbed one of those. She was about to the shut the fridge but decided to open it again and grab one for herself. She turned around and opened the nearest cupboard. She lucked out and it had a few snacks in it. She pulled out a bag of gluten free pretzels and dried fruit. When she got back down to the couch, Emma was patiently waiting. Emily opened their drinks and Emma's pretzels before she grabbed the book to begin reading.

"I'm going to read a page and then I want you to read some, okay? We will just switch off." Emma nodded with her mouth full of food. Emily began reading about a brother and sister with a time traveling tree house. She read the first two pages and then held the book up to Emma.

"Jack and Annie jum…jum."

"Jumped." Emily helped.

"Jack and Annie jumped out of the way. A horse had ju.." Emma struggled again.

"Just…a horse had just missed them." Emily dragged her finger under the line she was reading. They sat there together reading through the whole story. They made it through the first half of the book when Emily's phone went off.

_Getting off soon. Has she made you swear off procreation?_

"Who is it?" Emma questioned.

"It's your mom. She asked if you were being good."

"I'm always good." She said giving a devilish grin.

_She's much better than her mother ;)_

Emily sent her message back and got up to stretch. Looking at her watch she realized they had been reading for the better part of two and half hours.

"Well Em, what is there to cook in this house?" She thought it was funny that she used the same nickname for the little girl as many people used for her.

"We can mac and cheese and chicken nuggets." Surprisingly, that food combination sounded perfect to Emily. They both made their way to the kitchen and Emma pointed out where everything was. Emily started the oven and put on a pot of water to boil. While everything was preheating, she got the rest of the ingredients out.

"Did you know I have a secret recipe for mac and cheese?"

"Is it better than my mom's?" she asked wide eyed.

"It might be but I guess we'll have to see." She winked and poured the noodles in. She went to throw the box away and noticed a small step stool in the corner. She grabbed it and placed it next to her by the stove. She handed Emma a ladle and showed her the best way to stir. She placed the frozen nuggets on a pan and placed them in the oven, still keeping a careful eye on the girl.

"How do you know when it's ready?"

"When the noodles start to stick to your spoon, it's ready to go." Emily could tell that her arm was getting tired.

"How about you be my looker to see when the noodles stick?" She picked the girl up and set her on the counter next to the stove. She continued to stir while Emma looked over the pot diligently. Emily knew it was going to take a bit of time for the noodles to be done she wanted to talk to Emma about something she didn't address earlier.

"Hey Emma, remember how earlier you were asking me if I was dating your mom or your dad?" She shook her head yes.

"Do you know what that means?" Emily didn't want to correct the girl if she thought dating just meant being friends.

"It's when two people are in love so they go to dinner and see movies…but my parents do that but they aren't dating. They are best friends."

"Your mom and I are just friends too."

"Do you not like going to dinner with her?" Emily should have known the conversation was going to take this turn.

"We actually just eat lunch together because friends only eat lunch…together."

"So you like daddies?" Emma continued.

"I like mommies." Emily regretted defending her sexuality to a six year old.

"But you don't like my mom?" Emma asked confused.

"I think your mom is great! Paige is amazing and beautiful but we are both really busy right now…and I think these noodles are just about done. Where's the strainer." Her attempt at clearing up the situation probably made it worse. Emma pointed to a cupboard and Emily retrieved the strainer and drained the noodle.

"I know what you mean. Christoff and Anna want to get married but they can't until they save Elsa."

"Sure." Emily conceded rubbing her forehead with her hand. She added her secret ingredients into the pot and stirred in the noodles. Right as she finished, the oven rang.

"Let's set the table up and then we'll eat. Where are the plates?" Emily managed to get everything together and made a plate for Paige as well.

"Do you want any dipping sauces?" Emma requested ketchup and as Emily went to get it, the front door opened.

"I'm home!" Paige shouted. Emily sat down and squirted some ketchup on Emma's plate.

"We're in here." Paige set her stuff down and was pleasantly surprised that edible food had been made. When she got home with Caleb, the closest thing to food was a bag of popcorn. Paige jumped up the steps and put a hand on Emma's shoulder. She leant down and gave her a peck on the forehead. In auto pilot she moved along to Emily and gave her a kiss on the head as well. It wasn't until she was headed to the fridge, that she realized what she had done. She quickly turned around to a confused Emily.

"Sorry, I am in auto pilot and my sleep deprived brain thought you were Caleb." Paige bit her lip hoping Emily would not make the situation become awkward.

"I completely understand. One time when Hanna and I were living together after I broke up with my girlfriend I gave her a full on kiss on the mouth before leaving for work." They both laughed, albeit slightly forcibly.

"So what did you guys do?" Paige asked, trying to change the subject.

"Emily helped me read the magic tree house books and then she cooked her mac and cheese which is better than yours." Paige mocked being hurt.

"Well baby girl I go straight off of the box, so half of the mother's in America are better than me at mac and cheese." They finished their dinner with small conversation about work and school in between them. Paige and Emily carried the dishes into the kitchen.

"I made the mess, I can clean it up." Emily offered.

"Don't even think about it. I owe you…a lot." Paige grabbed her dishes and threw everything into the sink.

"Will you stay for a movie? Tomorrow is Saturday so I know you don't have work." She thought it over for a second before conceding. It was only eight and even though she was tired a movie would be relaxing. Paige threw Emma over her shoulder and walked them towards the couch. She put her in the middle and Emily sat down on the other side. Paige put in Beauty and the Beast, turned off the lights, and sat back down on the couch. She spread a blanket over the three of them and pressed play on the remote. As soon as the opening song began to play, they all relaxed back into the couch. Emily curled her legs up and leaned back. Emma was curled into her mother's side, with Paige's arm around her. Emily couldn't remember the last time she had seen this movie and was so invested she didn't realize the girl next to her had fallen asleep. She readjusted her position, trying not to hit the sleeping tiny human. Her left hand was now lost under the sea of blankets.

She spread out her hand to stabilize herself and her pinky came in contact with flesh. Her eyes stayed on the television unsure of what to do. As she moved her finger again, the object she was touching moved as well. She realized that it was another finger, an adult sized finger. She adjusted her legs a bit, still focusing on the television and moved her finger over her neighbors. She took in a deep breath as Paige responded moving her finger farther under Emily's pinky. After a few moments, half of Paige's hand was now under Emily's and the overlapping digits were intertwined. A small smile began to form at the corner of Emily's mouth and was mirrored on Paige's. Emily moved her thumb gently over the side of Emily's hand. Neither woman dared to look at each other at the risk of breaking the simple moment they created with the weight of reality. Paige flipped her hand over completely intertwining their fingers together. The sudden movement caused the sleeping beauty to sleep no longer. The motion of Emma waking up caused them to quickly break their hands away. As they did, both women caught the breath they didn't realize they were holding. The movie was coming to a close anyways so Emily got up off of the couch.

"I really should be getting home." She moved to the door to get her things.

"Emily wait please. Let me walk you out." Paige slipped her daughter off her lap and jumped up to follow Emily.

"You need to put Emma to bed I can walk the twenty feet to my car." Paige didn't want Emily to go but she knew she was right.

"I'll see you Monday. We have big plans, right?" Paige gave the best smile she could muster even though she was disappointed Emily was leaving.

"I'll see you Monday." With that, Emily walked out as quickly as she could. In her whole life, she had never felt such passion in just the touch of a hand. If that was any indication of her feelings for Paige, she knew she wasn't going to be able to keep her distance for long.

**TBC**


End file.
